Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aas...201.8401m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 201st AAS Meeting, #84.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.1243
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The rapid localization of GRB 021004 by the HETE-2 satellite allowed nearly continuous monitoring of its early optical afterglow decay, as well as high-quality optical spectra that determined a redshift of 2.328 for its host, an active starburst galaxy with strong Lyman α emission and several absorption lines. We report the detection of statistically significant fluctuations about the mean power-law optical decay. In particular, an equal number of well-sampled, high S/N images in B, V, R, and I filters were obtained during the period 15--24 hours after the burst, which finely sampled one of the largest such deviations. Fluctuations must be present at some level due to inhomogeneities in the circumburst medium and/or if the afterglow is ``refreshed'' by collisions among separate shells of ejecta. We will discuss the observational properties of these multicolor light curves, and possible explanations of the small-scale fluctuations. Interpretations of complex spectral absorption features in the Si IV and C IV lines that are blueshifted by up to ~ 3,200 km s-1 from the redshift of the host galaxy will also be discussed.
Chornock Ryan
Filippenko Alexei V.
Halpern Jules P.
Mirabal Nestor
Terndrup Donald
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