Discovery of an extra hard spectral component in the high-energy afterglow emission of GRB 130427A

Abstract

The extended high-energy gamma-ray (>100 MeV) emission which occurs after prompt gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is usually characterized by a single power-law spectrum, which has been explained as the afterglow synchrotron radiation. The afterglow inverse Compton emission has long been predicted to be able to produce a high-energy component as well, but previous observations have not clearly revealed such a signature, probably due to the small number of >10 GeV photons even for the brightest GRBs known so far. In this Letter, we report on the Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of the >100 MeV emission from the very bright and nearby GRB 130427A. We characterize the time-resolved spectra of the GeV emission from the GRB onset to the afterglow phase. By performing time-resolved spectral fits of GRB 130427A, we found strong evidence of an extra hard spectral component that exists in the extended high-energy emission of this GRB. We argue that this hard component may arise from the afterglow inverse Compton emission. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.