We analyze the early X-ray flares in the GRB "flare-plateau-afterglow" (FPA) phase observed by Swift-XRT. The FPA occurs only in one of the seven GRB subclasses: the binary-driven hypernovae (BdHNe). This subclass consists of long GRBs with a carbon-oxygen core and a neutron star (NS) binary companion as progenitors. The hypercritical accretion of the supernova (SN) ejecta onto the NS can lead to the gravitational collapse of the NS into a black hole. Consequently, one can observe a GRB emission with isotropic energy E iso 10 52 erg, as well as the associated GeV emission and the FPA phase. Previous work had shown that gamma-ray spikes in the prompt emission occur at ∼ 10 15 -10 17 cm with Lorentz gamma factor Γ ∼ 10 2 -10 3 . Using a novel data analysis we show that the time of occurrence, duration, luminosity and total energy of the X-ray flares correlate with E iso . A crucial feature is the observation of thermal emission in the X-ray flares that we show occurs at radii ∼ 10 12 cm with Γ 4. These model independent observations cannot be explained by the "fireball" model, which postulates synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation from a single ultra relativistic jetted emission extending from the prompt to the late afterglow and GeV emission phases. We show that in BdHNe a collision between the GRB and the SN ejecta occurs at 10 10 cm reaching transparency at ∼ 10 12 cm with Γ 4. The agreement between the thermal emission observations and these theoretically derived values validates our model and opens the possibility of testing each BdHN episode with the corresponding Lorentz gamma factor.

Within the binary-driven hypernova I (BdHN I) scenario, the gamma-ray burst GRB190114C originates in a binary system composed of a massive carbon-oxygen core (CO core ), and a binary neutron star (NS) companion. As the CO core undergoes a supernova explosion with the creation of a new neutron star (νNS), hypercritical accretion occurs onto the companion binary neutron star until it exceeds the critical mass for gravitational collapse. The formation of a black hole (BH) captures 10 57 baryons by enclosing them within its horizon, and thus a cavity of approximately 10 11 cm is formed around it with initial density 10 −7 g/cm 3 . A further depletion of baryons in the cavity originates from the expansion of the electron-positron-photon (e + e − γ) plasma formed at the collapse, reaching a density of 10 −14 g/cm 3 by the end of the interaction. It is demonstrated here using an analytical model complemented by a hydrodynamical numerical simulation that part of the e + e − γ plasma is reflected off the walls of the cavity. The consequent outflow and its observed properties are shown to coincide with the featureless emission occurring in a time interval of duration t rf , measured in the rest frame of the source, between 11 and 20 s of the GBM observation. Moreover, similar features of the GRB light curve were previously observed in GRB 090926A and GRB 130427A, all belonging to the BdHN I class. This interpretation supports the general conceptual framework presented in ) and guarantees that a low baryon density is reached in the cavity, a necessary condition for the operation of the "inner engine" of the GRB presented in an accompanying article (Ruffini & Moradi 2019).

We analyze GRB 151027A within the binary-driven hypernova (BdHN) approach, with progenitor a carbon-oxygen core on the verge of a supernova (SN) explosion and a binary companion neutron star (NS). The hypercritical accretion of the SN ejecta onto the NS leads to its gravitational collapse into a black hole (BH), to the emission of the GRB and to a copious e + e − plasma. The impact of this e + e − plasma on the SN ejecta explains the early soft X-ray flare observed in long GRBs. We here apply this approach to the UPE and to the hard X-ray flares. We use GRB 151027A as a prototype. From the time-integrated and the time-resolved analysis we identify a double component in the UPE and confirm its ultra-relativistic nature. We confirm the mildly-relativistic nature of the soft X-ray flare, of the hard X-ray flare and of the ETE. We show that the ETE identifies the transition from a SN to the HN. We then address the theoretical justification of these observations by integrating the hydrodynamical propagation equations of the e + e − into the SN ejecta, the latter independently obtained from 3D smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics simulations. We conclude that the UPE, the hard X-ray flare and the soft X-ray flare do not form a causally connected sequence: Within our model they are the manifestation of the same physical process of the BH formation as seen through different viewing angles, implied by the morphology and the ∼ 300 s rotation period of the HN ejecta.