Fermi Observations of High-energy Gamma-ray Emission from GRB 090217A

Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; Baldini, L.; Ballet, J.; Barbiellini, G.; Baring, M. G.; Bastieri, D.; Bechtol, K.; Bellazzini, R.; Berenji, B.; Bhat, P. N.; Bissaldi, E.; Blandford, R. D.; Bonamente, Emanuele; Borgland, A. W.; Bouvier, A.; Bregeon, J.; Brez, A.; Briggs, M. S.; Brigida, M.; Bruel, P.; Buehler, R.; Buson, S.; Caliandro, G. A.; Cameron, R. A.; Caraveo, P. A.; Carrigan, S.; Casandjian, J. M.; Cecchi, Claudia; Çelik, Ö.; Charles, E.; Chekhtman, A.; Chiang, J.; Ciprini, S.; Claus, R.; Cohen Tanugi, J.; Connaughton, V.; Conrad, J.; Cutini, S.; Dermer, C. D.; Angelis, A. d.; Palma, F. d.; Digel, S. W.; Couto, E. d.; Drell, P. S.; Dubois, R.; Favuzzi, C.; Fegan, S. J.; Ferrara, E. C.; Frailis, M.; Fukazawa, Y.; Fusco, P.; Gargano, F.; Gasparrini, D.; Gehrels, N.; Germani, S.; Giglietto, N.; Giommi, P.; Giordano, F.; Giroletti, M.; Glanzman, T.; Godfrey, G.; Granot, J.; Grenier, I. A.; Grove, J. E.; Guillemot, L.; Guiriec, S.; Hadasch, D.; Hays, E.; Horan, D.; Hughes, R. E.; Jóhannesson, G.; Johnson, A. S.; Johnson, W. N.; Kamae, T.; Katagiri, H.; Kippen, R. M.; Knödlseder, J.; Kocevski, D.; Kuss, M.; Lande, J.; Latronico, L.; Lee, S.; Garde, M. L.; Longo, F.; Loparco, F.; Lovellette, M. N.; Lubrano, P.; Makeev, A.; Mazziotta, M. N.; Mcbreen, S.; Mcenery, J. E.; Mcglynn, S.; Meegan, C.; Mehault, J.; Mészáros, P.; Michelson, P. F.; Mizuno, T.; Moiseev, A. A.; Monte, C.; Monzani, M. E.; Moretti, E.; Morselli, A.; Moskalenko, I. V.; Murgia, S.; Nakajima, H.; Nakamori, T.; Naumann Godo, M.; Nolan, P. L.; Norris, J. P.; Nuss, E.; Ohno, M.; Ohsugi, T.; Okumura, A.; Omodei, N.; Orlando, E.; Ormes, J. F.; Ozaki, M.; Paciesas, W. S.; Paneque, D.; Panetta, J. H.; Parent, D.; Pelassa, V.; Pepe, M.; Pesce Rollins, M.; Petrosian, V.; Piron, F.; Porter, T. A.; Preece, R.; Racusin, J. L.; Rainò, S.; Rando, R.; Rau, A.; Razzano, M.; Razzaque, S.; Reimer, A.; Reimer, O.; Ripken, J.; Roth, M.; Ryde, F.; Sadrozinski, H. F.; Sander, A.; Scargle, J. D.; Schalk, T. L.; Sgrò, C.; Siskind, E. J.; Smith, P. D.; Spandre, G.; Spinelli, P.; Stamatikos, M.; Strickman, M. S.; Suson, D. J.; Tajima, H.; Takahashi, H.; Tanaka, T.; Thayer, J. B.; Thayer, J. G.; Tibaldo, L.; Torres, D. F.; Tosti, Gino; Tramacere, A.; Uehara, T.; Usher, T. L.; Vandenbroucke, J.; Van, A. J.; Vasileiou, V.; Vilchez, N.; Vitale, V.; Kienlin, A. v.; Waite, A. P.; Wang, P.; Wilson Hodge, C.; Winer, B. L.; Wood, K. S.; X. F., Wu; Yamazaki, R.; Yang, Z.; Ylinen, T.; Ziegler, M.; Collaboration, F. L.; Collaboration, F. G.

The Fermi observatory is advancing our knowledge of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) through pioneering observations at high energies, covering more than seven decades in energy with the two on-board detectors, the Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). Here, we report on the observation of the long GRB 090217A which triggered the GBM and has been detected by the LAT with a significance greater than 9σ. We present the GBM and LAT observations and on-ground analyses, including the time-resolved spectra and the study of the temporal profile from 8 keV up to ~1 GeV. All spectra are well reproduced by a Band model. We compare these observations to the first two LAT-detected, long bursts GRB 080825C and GRB 080916C. These bursts were found to have time-dependent spectra and exhibited a delayed onset of the high-energy emission, which are not observed in the case of GRB 090217A. We discuss some theoretical implications for the high-energy emission of GRBs.