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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NCScience Advances

Harmonic brightness oscillations point to magnetar giant flares in rare short gamma-ray bursts

  • Run-Chao Chen1,2
  • Ore Gottlieb3
  • Bin-Bin Zhang1,2
  • Yuri Levin4
  • Dong Lai5,6
  • Jun Yang7
  • Yi-Han Iris Yin8,9
  • Suo-Ning Wang1,2
9 affiliations
  1. 1School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
  2. 2Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing, China.
  3. 3Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
  4. 4Department of Physics and Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, Columbia University, Pupin Hall, New York, NY 10027, USA.
  5. 5Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 201210, China.
  6. 6Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Department of Astronomy, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
  7. 7Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China.
  8. 8Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China.
  9. 9The Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
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Abstract

Kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) have been observed in a few rare gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), but their physical origin remains uncertain. We reanalyze the two short GRBs with reported kilohertz QPOs, GRB 910711 and GRB 200415A, and find evidence for possible harmonic-like organization around a characteristic frequency scale near 360 hertz. The similar harmonic-like pattern in GRB 910711 and in the confirmed magnetar giant flare (MGF) event GRB 200415A, including features extending above 4 kilohertz, points to timing phenomenology on frequency scales relevant to magnetar oscillation modes. The temporal and spectral similarities between the two events and the difficulty of explaining these features in merger-driven scenarios favor an MGF-like interpretation of GRB 910711. This timing phenomenology may therefore provide an additional observational handle, complementary to spectral, temporal, and localization information, for distinguishing rare MGF-like transients from merger-driven GRBs.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{chen2026harmonic,
  title = {{Harmonic brightness oscillations point to magnetar giant flares in rare short gamma-ray bursts}},
  author = {Run-Chao Chen and Ore Gottlieb and Bin-Bin Zhang and Yuri Levin and Dong Lai and Jun Yang and Yi-Han Iris Yin and Suo-Ning Wang},
  journal = {Science Advances},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aee6388},
  url = {https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aee6388},
  note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Harmonic brightness oscillations point to magnetar giant flares in rare short gamma-ray bursts
AU  - Run-Chao Chen
AU  - Ore Gottlieb
AU  - Bin-Bin Zhang
AU  - Yuri Levin
AU  - Dong Lai
AU  - Jun Yang
AU  - Yi-Han Iris Yin
AU  - Suo-Ning Wang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
JO  - Science Advances
DO  - 10.1126/sciadv.aee6388
UR  - https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aee6388
AB  - Kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) have been observed in a few rare gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), but their physical origin remains uncertain. We reanalyze the two short GRBs with reported kilohertz QPOs, GRB 910711 and GRB 200415A, and find evidence for possible harmonic-like organization around a characteristic frequency scale near 360 hertz. The similar harmonic-like pattern in GRB 910711 and in the confirmed magnetar giant flare (MGF) event GRB 200415A, including features extending above 4 kilohertz, points to timing phenomenology on frequency scales relevant to magnetar oscillation modes. The temporal and spectral similarities between the two events and the difficulty of explaining these features in merger-driven scenarios favor an MGF-like interpretation of GRB 910711. This timing phenomenology may therefore provide an additional observational handle, complementary to spectral, temporal, and localization information, for distinguishing rare MGF-like transients from merger-driven GRBs.
SN  - 2375-2548
ER  -