How exponential are FREDs?

A common Gamma-Ray Burst-light curve shape is the “FRED” or “fast-rise exponential-decay.” But how exponential is the tail? Are they merely decaying with some smoothly decreasing decline rate, or is the functional form an exponential to within the uncertainties? If the shape really is an exponential, then it would be reasonable to assign some physically significant time scale to the burst. That is, there would have to be some specific mechanism that produces the characteristic decay profile. So if an exponential is found, then we will know that the decay light curve profile is governed by one mechanism (at least for simple FREDs) instead of by complex/multiple mechanisms. As such, a specific number amenable to theory can be derived for each FRED. We report on the fitting of exponentials (and two other shapes) to the tails of ten bright BATSE bursts. The BATSE trigger numbers are 105, 257, 451, 907, 1406, 1578, 1883, 1885, 1989, and 2193. Our technique was to perform a least square fit to the tail from some time after peak until the light curve approaches background. We find that most FREDs are not exponentials, although a few come close. But since the other candidate shapes come close just as often, we conclude that the FREDs are misnamed.