Rights Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License CONSTRAINING THE LORENTZ FACTOR OF A RELATIVISTIC SOURCE FROM ITS THERMAL EMISSION

We propose a direct and simple method to measure the Lorentz factor of relativistically expanding objects such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Only three measurements, i.e., the thermal component of the emission, the distance, and the variable timescale of the light curve, are used. When the uncertainties are considered, we will obtain a lower limit of the Lorentz factor instead. We apply this method to GRB 090618 and get a lower limit of 22 for the Lorentz factor. This method can be used for any relativistically moving objects, such as GRBs and soft gamma-ray repeaters. Key words: gamma-ray burst: general – radiation mechanisms: thermal – relativistic processe