GRB 060418 and 060607A: the medium surrounding the progenitor and the weak reverse shock emission

Abstract

We constrain the circum-burst medium profile with the rise behavior of the very early afterglow light curves of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Using this method, we find a constant and low-density medium profile for GRB 060418 and GRB 060607A, which is consistent with the inference from the late afterglow data. In addition, we show that the absence of the IR flashes in these two GRB afterglows is consistent with the standard external reverse shock model, which thus renders models like the highly magnetized GRB outflow being unnecessary to a certain extent.