Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308

Details Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308 Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308

1999-07-16

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9907235v3

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

ApJ Lett submitted, 5 pages, 2 figures, no space for 12 coauthors

Scientific paper

10.1086/312318

The optical transient of the faint Gamma Ray Burst 990308 was detected by the QUEST camera on the Venezuelan 1-m Schmidt telescope starting 3.28 hours after the burst. Our photometry gives $V = 18.32 \pm 0.07$, $R = 18.14 \pm 0.06$, $B = 18.65 \pm 0.23$, and $R = 18.22 \pm 0.05$ for times ranging from 3.28 to 3.47 hours after the burst. The colors correspond to a spectral slope of close to $f_{\nu} \propto \nu^{1/3}$. Within the standard synchrotron fireball model, this requires that the external medium be less dense than $10^{4} cm^{-3}$, the electrons contain $> 20%$ of the shock energy, and the magnetic field energy must be less than 24% of the energy in the electrons for normal interstellar or circumstellar densities. We also report upper limits of $V > 12.0$ at 132 s (with LOTIS), $V > 13.4$ from 132-1029s (with LOTIS), $V > 15.3$ at 28.2 min (with Super-LOTIS), and a 8.5 GHz flux of $< 114 \mu Jy$ at 110 days (with the Very Large Array). WIYN 3.5-m and Keck 10-m telescopes reveal this location to be empty of any host galaxy to $R > 25.7$ and $K > 23.3$. The lack of a host galaxy likely implies that it is either substantially subluminous or more distant than a red shift of $\sim 1.2$.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308 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 Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Discovery of the Optical Transient of the Gamma Ray Burst 990308 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-287554