GRB 190114C

We investigated a proton-synchrotron model to explain the TeV afterglow emission, while attributing the X-ray spectra to electron-synchrotron radiation. We consider variations of the model to account for uncertainties in the particle acceleration process and demonstrate that the observed data are well-matched under reasonable physical conditions. Our findings suggest that protons in the burst environment are accelerated to ultra-high energies (~10²⁰ eV), with explosion energies, ambient densities, and particle acceleration efficiencies derived directly from the observed fluxes.

The results highlight the significance of proton-synchrotron emission as a viable mechanism for explaining VHE gamma-ray observations in GRB afterglows, offering new perspectives on energy partitioning and particle dynamics in these extreme events.