The distances of short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Enlarged sample of bursts; ApJ in press

Scientific paper

10.1086/498229

We present a search for nearby (D<100 Mpc) galaxies in the error boxes of six well-localized short-hard gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). None of the six error boxes reveals the presence of a plausible nearby host galaxy. This allows us to set lower limits on the distances and, hence, the isotropic-equivalent energy of these GRBs. Our lower limits are around $1 \times 10^{49}$ erg (at $2\sigma$ confidence level); as a consequence, some of the short-hard GRBs we examine would have been detected by BATSE out to distances greater than 1 Gpc and therefore constitute a bona fide cosmological population. Our search is partially motivated by the December 27, 2004 hypergiant flare from SGR 1806-20, and the intriguing possibility that short-hard GRBs are extragalactic events of a similar nature. Such events would be detectable with BATSE to a distance of \~50 Mpc, and their detection rate should be comparable to the actual BATSE detection rate of short-hard GRBs. The failure of our search, by contrast, suggests that such flares constitute less than 15% of the short-hard GRBs (<40% at 95% confidence). We discuss possible resolutions of this discrepancy.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The distances of short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The distances of short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The distances of short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-721866

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.