Diverse Morphologies of Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Plateaus within a Common Magnetar Framework
7 affiliations
- 1Nanjing University
- 2Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University)
- 3Guangxi University
- 4Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology
- 5State Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology
- 6Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Radio Astrophysics
- 7Purple Mountain Observatory
Abstract
The origin of the X-ray plateau phase in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remains an open problem. In particular, it is unclear whether GRBs with different temporal morphologies (i.e., with a rising, flat, or decaying plateau) arise from a common underlying mechanism. Although magnetar energy injection is a leading explanation, previous studies have primarily inferred magnetar properties on a burst-by-burst basis and have not tested the model at the population level. Here, we perform the first hierarchical population inference of magnetar parameters for a uniform sample of 185 long GRBs with X-ray plateaus within a conditional Poisson point-process framework. It is found that the observed plateau population is well reproduced by physically plausible magnetar populations. The inferred parameter distributions show no strong statistical separation among subclasses with different plateau morphologies. Nevertheless, all subclasses show a substantial intrinsic luminosity scatter, σ L ,int ∼ 0.5–1.0 dex, whereas the intrinsic duration scatter remains considerably smaller. The results provide a population-level test of the magnetar interpretation of GRB X-ray plateaus, showing that the observed diversity of plateau morphologies does not require distinct magnetar populations.
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BibTeX
@article{dong2026diverse,
title = {{Diverse Morphologies of Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Plateaus within a Common Magnetar Framework}},
author = {Xiao-Fei Dong and Yong-Feng Huang and Nurimangul Nurmamat and Chen Deng and Ze-Cheng Zou and Fan Xu and Abdusattar Kurban and Chen Du and Chen-Ran Hu and Jin-Jun Geng},
journal = {The Astrophysical Journal Letters},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3847/2041-8213/aea6c4},
url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea6c4},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Diverse Morphologies of Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Plateaus within a Common Magnetar Framework
AU - Xiao-Fei Dong
AU - Yong-Feng Huang
AU - Nurimangul Nurmamat
AU - Chen Deng
AU - Ze-Cheng Zou
AU - Fan Xu
AU - Abdusattar Kurban
AU - Chen Du
AU - Chen-Ran Hu
AU - Jin-Jun Geng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/30
JO - The Astrophysical Journal Letters
DO - 10.3847/2041-8213/aea6c4
UR - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aea6c4
AB - The origin of the X-ray plateau phase in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remains an open problem. In particular, it is unclear whether GRBs with different temporal morphologies (i.e., with a rising, flat, or decaying plateau) arise from a common underlying mechanism. Although magnetar energy injection is a leading explanation, previous studies have primarily inferred magnetar properties on a burst-by-burst basis and have not tested the model at the population level. Here, we perform the first hierarchical population inference of magnetar parameters for a uniform sample of 185 long GRBs with X-ray plateaus within a conditional Poisson point-process framework. It is found that the observed plateau population is well reproduced by physically plausible magnetar populations. The inferred parameter distributions show no strong statistical separation among subclasses with different plateau morphologies. Nevertheless, all subclasses show a substantial intrinsic luminosity scatter, σ L ,int ∼ 0.5–1.0 dex, whereas the intrinsic duration scatter remains considerably smaller. The results provide a population-level test of the magnetar interpretation of GRB X-ray plateaus, showing that the observed diversity of plateau morphologies does not require distinct magnetar populations.
SN - 2041-8205
SN - 2041-8213
ER -