Computer Science – Graphics
Scientific paper
Jul 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008hst..prop11669f&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #11669. Cycle 17
Computer Science
Graphics
Scientific paper
During the past decade extraordinary progress has been made in determining the origin of long-duration gamma-ray bursts. It has been conclusively shown that these objects derive from the deaths of massive stars. Nonetheless, the origin of their observational cousins, short-duration gamma-ray bursts {SGRBs} remains a mystery. While SGRBs are widely thought to result from the inspiral of compact binaries, this is a conjecture. SGRBs have been found in elliptical galaxies, Abell Clusters, star-forming dwarfs and even an edge-on spiral. Whether they primarily result from an old population, a young population, or rapid evolution of binaries in globular clusters remains open. Here we propose to employ two related sets of observations which may dramatically advance our understanding of short bursts. The first is a variant of a technique that we pioneered and used to great effect in elucidating the origins of long-duration bursts. We will examine a statistical sample of hosts and measure the degree to which SGRB locations trace the red or blue light of their hosts, and thus old or young stellar populations. This will allow us to study the demographics of the SGRB population in a manner largely free of the distance dependent selection effects which have so far bedeviled this field. In the second line of attack we will use two targets of opportunity to obtain extremely precise positions of up to two nearby bursts - one on a star-forming galaxy and the other on a elliptical. Observation of the star-formation galaxy could link at least some bursts directly to a young population; however, a discovery in later images of a globular cluster at the site of the explosion in an elliptical would provide revolutionary evidence that SGRBs are formed from compact binaries.;
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