VARIABILITY PROPERTIES OF SWIFT-BAT GAMMA-RAY BURSTS

We study the variability properties of the prompt emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the gamma-ray energy range. We use the power spectrum analysis in the time domain as developed by [Margutti, in preparation]; this technique is suitable to study the rms variations at different time scales. The timing analysis of 252 Swift light-curves in the 15–150 keV energy range reveals the existence of different variability classes. Moreover, after accounting for the cosmological time dilation, the distribution of the GRB characteristic variability time scales is found to cluster around 0.6–1 s we identify this time scale as a characteristic variability time scale of long GRBs in the source rest frame.