Gamma-Ray Burst Physics in the Spitzer/Swift Era

Details Gamma-Ray Burst Physics in the Spitzer/Swift Era Gamma-Ray Burst Physics in the Spitzer/Swift Era

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.3653g&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #3653

Physics

Scientific paper

Gamma-Ray burst (GRB) afterglows are detected from the X-rays to the radio but the thermal infrared remains unexplored territory. The combination of Spitzer infrared space telescope and the Swift gamma-ray burst explorer provides a unique opportunity to map the spectral energy distribution of afterglows between 3 and 160 microns. The synchrotron model for afterglows predicts a steeply rising power-law spectrum over this range with specific spectral breaks due to the physics of the emission. These breaks have never been directly observed due to the limited spectral coverage available from the ground. Spitzer observations will provide a definitive test of the standard afterglow model. The nearly featureless power-law spectra of GRB afterglows will allow the study of dust properties in high redshift galaxies using the IRS spectrograph on Spitzer. And deep IRAC imaging of optically dark afterglows will differentiate between low-redshift bursts with significant dust extinction, and ultrahigh-redshift events predicted to be found by Swift to z~9. We propose to map the energy distribution of two normal, optically bright GRB afterglows identified by Swift and observed as targets-of-opportunity by Spitzer. And we propose to study two `dark' bursts which may result from core collapse supernovae at the earliest epoch of star formation.

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