Comparing Prompt Emission from X-ray Flashes and Gamma-ray Bursts

摘要

The final year of the BeppoSAX mission provided a much needed clue as to the nature of X-ray flashes. The detection of afterglow counterparts and their underlying hosts provides strong evidence that X-ray flashes and gamma-ray bursts originate from similar sources in cosmologically distant galaxies. These observations support findings that the prompt emission characteristics of X-ray flashes are similar to those of traditional gamma-ray bursts. Using wide-band observations from BeppoSAX and BATSE, we present the latest results in our on-going effort to quantify the similarities and differences in prompt emission characteristics.