The Chinese CubeSat Mission, Gamma Ray Integrated Detectors (GRID), recently detected its first gamma-ray burst, GRB 210121A, which was jointly observed by the Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM). This burst is confirmed by several other missions, including Fermi and Insight-HXMT. We combined multimission observational data and performed a comprehensive analysis of the burst’s temporal and spectral properties. Our results show that the burst is relatively special in its high peak energy, thermal-like low-energy indices, and large fluence. By putting it to the E p –E γ,iso relation diagram with assumed distance, we found that this burst can be constrained at the redshift range of [0.3, 3.0]. The thermal spectral component is also confirmed by the direct fit of the physical models to the observed spectra. Interestingly, the physical photosphere model also constrained a redshift of z ∼ 0.3 for this burst, which helps us to identify a host galaxy candidate at such a distance within the location error box. Assuming that the host galaxy is real, we found that the burst can be best explained by the photosphere emission of a typical fireball with an initial radius of r 0 ∼ 3.2 × 107 cm.

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A B S T R A C TThe key to photoelectric X-ray polarimetry is the determination of the emission direction of photoelectrons. Because of the low mass of an electron, the ionisation trajectory is not straight and the useful information needed for polarimetry is stored mostly in the initial part of the track where less energy is deposited. We present a new algorithm, based on the shortest path problem in graph theory, to reconstruct the 2D electron track from the measured image that is blurred due to transversal diffusion along drift and multiplication in the gas chamber. Compared with previous methods based on moment analysis, this algorithm allows us to identify the photoelectric interaction point more accurately and precisely for complicated tracks resulting from high energy photons or low pressure chambers. This leads to a better position resolution and a higher degree of modulation toward high energy X-rays. The new algorithm is justified using simulations and measurements with the gas pixel detector (GPD), and it should also work for other polarimetric techniques such as a time projection chamber (TPC). As the improvement is restricted in the high energy band, this new algorithm shows limited improvement for the sensitivity of GPD polarimeters, but it may have a larger potential for low-pressure TPC polarimeters.

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The LIGO/Virgo and Fermi collaborations recently reported a possible joint detection of a subthreshold gravitational-wave (GW) event and a subthreshold gamma-ray burst (GRB), GBM-190816, that occurred 1.57 s after the merger. We perform an independent analysis of the publicly available data and investigate the physical implications of this potential association. By carefully studying the following properties of GBM-190816 using Fermi/GBM data, including signal-to-noise ratio, duration, f-parameter, spectral properties, energetic properties, and its compliance with some GRB statistical correlations, we confirm that this event is likely a typical short GRB. Assuming its association with the subthreshold GW event, the inferred luminosity is erg s−1. Based on the available information of the subthreshold GW event, we infer the mass ratio q of the compact binary as (90% confidence interval) according to the reported range of luminosity distance. If the heavier compact object has a mass >3 solar masses, q can be further constrained to . The leading physical scenario invokes an NS–BH merger system with the NS tidally disrupted. Within this scenario, we constrain the physical properties of such a system (including mass ratio q, the spin parameters, and the observer’s viewing angle) to produce a GRB. The GW data may also allow an NS–BH system with no tidal disruption of the NS (the plunge events) or a BH–BH merger. We apply the charged compact binary coalescence theory (for both a constant charge and an increasing charge for the merging members) to derive the model parameters to account for GBM-190816 and found that the required parameters are extreme. Finally, we argue that the fact that the observed GW–GRB delay timescale is comparable to that of GW170817/GRB 170817A suggests that the GW–GRB time delay of these two cases is mainly defined by the timescale for the jet to propagate to the energy dissipation/GRB emission site.