2022ApJ...939...62R

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are systems of unprecedented complexity across all the electromagnetic spectrum, including the radio, optical, X-rays, gamma rays in the MeV and GeV regimes, as well as ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays, each manifested in seven specific physical processes with widely different characteristic evolution timescales ranging from 10^–14 s to 10⁷ s or longer. We here study the long GRB 180720B originating from a binary system composed of a massive carbon-oxygen (CO) star of about 10M_⊙ and a companion neutron star (NS). The gravitational collapse of the CO star gives rise to a spinning newborn NS (νNS), with an initial period of P₀ = 1 ms that powers the synchrotron radiation in the radio, optical, and X-ray wavelengths. We here investigate solely the GRB 180720B afterglows and present a detailed treatment of its origin based on the synchrotron radiation released by the interaction of the νNS and the SN ejecta. We show that in parallel to the X-ray afterglow, the spinning νNS also powers the optical and radio afterglows and allows to infer the νNS and ejecta parameters that fit the observational data.