Gamma Ray Bursts Have Millisecond Variability

Abstract

We have performed searches for isolated flares and for steady flickering in Gamma Ray Burst light curves on the microsecond to millisecond time scales. Two bursts out of our sample of 20 revealed four isolated flares with time scales from $256 μs$ to $2048 μs$. A wavelet analysis for our sample showed low level flickering for all bursts on time scales from $256 μs$ to 33 ms, with the majority of bursts containing rise times faster than four milliseconds and 30% having rise times faster than one millisecond. These results show that millisecond variability is common in classical bursts and not some exceptional activity by a possibly separate class of bursts. These fast rise times can be used to place severe limits on burst models: (1) The characteristic thickness of the energy generation region must be less than 1200 km along the line of sight. (2) The angular size of the gamma ray emission region as subtended from the central source must be less than 42 arc-seconds. (3) The expanding ejecta must have a range of Lorentz factors along a radius line with a dispersion of less than roughly 2%. (4) Within the external shock scenario, the characteristic dimension of the impacted cloud must be smaller than 16 Astronomical Units on average. (5) Within the collimated jet scenario, the collimation angle must be smaller than 42 arc-seconds.