Spectral Evolution of Long Gamma-ray Burst Prompt Emission: Electrostatic Acceleration and Adiabatic Expansion

Despite the great variation in the light curves of gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission, their spectral energy distribution (SED) is generally curved and broadly peaked. In particular, their spectral evolution is well described by the hardness–intensity correlation during a single pulse decay phase, when the SED peak height Sp decreases as its peak energy Ep decreases. We propose an acceleration scenario, based on electrostatic acceleration, to interpret the Ep distribution peak at ∼0.25 MeV. We show that during the decay phase of individual pulses in the long GRB light curve, the adiabatic expansion losses likely dominate the synchrotron cooling effects. The energy loss as due to adiabatic expansion can also be used to describe the spectral evolution observed during their decay phase. The spectral evolution predicted by our scenario is consistent with that observed in single pulses of long BATSE GRBs.