[ITAL]Hubble Space Telescope[/ITAL] and Palomar Imaging of GRB 990123: Implications for the Nature of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Their Hosts

Fruchter, A. S.; Thorsett, S. E.; Metzger, M.; Sahu, Kailash C.; Petro, L.; Livio, Mario; Ferguson, Henry C.; Pian, E.; Hogg, David W.; Galama, T. J.; Gull, Theodore R.; Kouveliotou, C.; Macchetto, D.; Paradijs, J. van; Pedersen, H.; Smette, A.

doi:10.1086/312094

Cited by 194 publications

(137 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Since long bursts are related to star formation, their host galaxies could be interacting, morphologically disturbed galaxies, where a starburst was triggered by galaxy-galaxy-interaction (e.g., Fruchter et al 1999;Chen 2012). In our images, we find four such potential cases where at least one partner lies inside the 90% c.l.…”

Section: Interacting Pairs Of Galaxies As Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 79%

A deep search for the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts with no detected optical afterglow

Rossi

Klose

Ferrero

et al. 2012

A&A

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Context. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can provide information about star formation at high redshifts. Even in the absence of a bright optical/nearinfrared/radio afterglow, the high detection rate of X-ray afterglows by Swift/XRT and its localization precision of 2-3 arcsec facilitates the identification and the study of GRB host galaxies. Aims. We focus on the search for the host galaxies of 17 bursts with arcsec-sized XRT error circles but no detected long-wavelength afterglow, in spite of their deep and rapid follow-up observations. Three of these events can also be classified as truly dark bursts, i.e., the observed upper limit on the optical flux of the afterglow was less than expected based on the measured X-ray flux. Our goals are to identify the GRB host galaxy candidates and characterize their phenomenological parameters. Methods. Our study is based on deep R C and K s -band observations performed with FORS1, FORS2, VIMOS, ISAAC, and HAWK-I at the ESO/VLT, partly supported by observations with the seven-channel imager GROND at the 2.2-m telescope on La Silla, and supplemented by observations with NEWFIRM at the 4-m telescope on Kitt Peak. To be conservative, we searched for host galaxy candidates within an area of twice the radius of each associated 90% c.l. Swift/XRT error circle. Results. For 15 of the 17 bursts, we find at least one galaxy within the searching area, and in the remaining two cases only a deep upper limit to R C and K s can be provided. In seven cases, we discover extremely red objects in the error circles, at least four of which might be dust-enshrouded galaxies. The most remarkable case is the host of GRB 080207, which has a color of (R C − K s ) AB ∼ 4.7 mag, and is one of the reddest galaxies ever associated with a GRB. As a by-product of our study we identify the optical afterglow of GRB 070517. Conclusions. Only a minority of optically dim afterglows are due to Lyman dropout ( 1/3). Extinction by dust in the host galaxies might explain all other events. Thereby, a seemingly non-negligible fraction of these hosts are globally dust-enshrouded, extremely red galaxies. This suggests that at least a fraction of GRB afterglows trace a subpopulation of massive starburst galaxies, which are markedly different from the main body of the GRB host galaxy population, namely the blue, subluminous, compact galaxies.

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Section: Interacting Pairs Of Galaxies As Candidatesmentioning

confidence: 79%

A deep search for the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts with no detected optical afterglow

Rossi

Klose

Ferrero

et al. 2012

A&A

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“…We note that if the absorbing material is close to the GRB, the high radiation field can photo-ionise the surrounding material out to several parsecs, reducing the amount of low-energy aborption with time (Lazzati & Perna 2002). The detection of excess Nh, variable or otherwise, is important as it provides strong supporting evidence for massive star progenitors and the association of long GRBs with starforming regions (Fruchter et al 1999;Prochaska et al 2004). Below we present a detailed spectral X-ray analysis of the early and late time X-ray specta for GRB 051117A.…”

Section: The X-ray Spectral Properties Of Grb 051117amentioning

confidence: 85%

Swift multi-wavelength observations of the bright flaring burst GRB 051117A

Goad

Page

Godet

et al. 2007

A&A

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We report on the temporal and spectral characteristics of the early X-ray emission from the Gamma Ray Burst 051117A as observed by Swift. The superb quality of the early X-ray light-curve and spectra of this source, one of the brightest seen by the X-ray Telescope at such early times, allows an unprecedented look at the spectral and temporal evolution of the prompt and early afterglow emission for this GRB and allows us to place stringent limits on the detection of lines. GRB 051117A displays a highly complex light-curve, with an apparent initial slow decline of slope α = 0.77 ± 0.07 ( f (t) ∝ t −α ) dominated by numerous superposed flares of varying amplitude and duration. Between orbits 2 and 3, the X-ray light-curve drops abruptly, highlighting the dominance of flaring activity at early times, and indicating that the central engine for this burst remains active for several kiloseconds after the initial explosion. The late time slope (t > 10 4 s) also decays relatively slowly with a powerlaw index of α = 0.66, breaking to a steeper slope of 1.1, 170 ks after the BAT trigger. The X-ray light-curve at early times is characteristic of a noise process, consisting of random shots superposed on an underlying powerlaw decay, with individual shots well-modelled by a fast-rise and exponential decay spanning a broad range in rise-times and decay rates. A temporal spectral analysis of the early light-curve shows that the photon index and source intensity are highly correlated with the spectrum being significantly harder when brighter, consistent with the movement of the peak of the Band function to lower energies following individual flares. The high quality spectrum obtained from the first orbit of WT mode data, enables us to place a 3σ upper limit on the strength of any emission line features of EW < 15 eV, assuming a narrow emission-line of 100 eV at the peak of the effective area.

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“…We have fit the NIR/optical data (Castro Tirado 1999;Fruchter et al 1999;Galama et al 1999;Holland et al 2000;Kulkarni et al 1999a) and the radio data (Galama et al 1999;Kulkarni et al 1999b) for this GRB. In Fig.…”

Section: Grb 990123mentioning

confidence: 99%

On the radio afterglow of gamma ray bursts

Dado

Dar

Rújula

2003

A&A

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Abstract. We use the cannonball (CB) model of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) to predict the spectral and temporal behaviour of their radio afterglows (AGs). A single simple expression describes the AGs at all times and frequencies; its high-frequency limit reproduces the successful CB model predictions for optical and X-ray AGs. We analyze all of the observed radio AGs of GRBs with known redshifts, including those of the exceptionally close-by GRB 980425. We also study in detail the timeevolution of the AGs' spectral index. The agreement between theory and observations is excellent, even though the CB model is extremely frugal in the number of parameters required to explain the radio observations. We propose to use the scintillations in the radio AGs of GRBs to verify and measure the hyperluminal speed of their jetted CBs, whose apparent angular velocity is of the same order of magnitude as that of galactic pulsars, consistently measured directly, or via scintillations.

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[ITAL]Hubble Space Telescope[/ITAL] and Palomar Imaging of GRB 990123: Implications for the Nature of Gamma-Ray Bursts and Their Hosts

Cited by 194 publications

References 22 publications

A deep search for the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts with no detected optical afterglow

A deep search for the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts with no detected optical afterglow

Swift multi-wavelength observations of the bright flaring burst GRB 051117A

On the radio afterglow of gamma ray bursts

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