A possible macronova in the late afterglow of the long-short burst GRB 060614

Bin Yang, Zhi Ping Jin, Xiang Li, Stefano Covino, Xian Zhong Zheng, Kenta Hotokezaka, Yi Zhong Fan, Tsvi Piran*, Da Ming Wei

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

254 Scopus citations

Abstract

Long-duration (>2 s) γ 3-ray bursts that are believed to originate from the death of massive stars are expected to be accompanied by supernovae. GRB 060614, that lasted 102s, lacks a supernova-like emission down to very stringent limits and its physical origin is still debated. Here we report the discovery of near-infrared bump that is significantly above the regular decaying afterglow. This red bump is inconsistent with even the weakest known supernova. However, it can arise from a Li-Paczyski macronova-the radioactive decay of debris following a compact binary merger. If this interpretation is correct, GRB 060614 arose from a compact binary merger rather than from the death of a massive star and it was a site of a significant production of heavy r-process elements. The significant ejected mass favours a black hole-neutron star merger but a double neutron star merger cannot be ruled out.

Original languageEnglish
Article number7323
JournalNature Communications
Volume6
DOIs
StatePublished - 11 Jun 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Macmillan Publishers Limited.

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