The Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts

Details The Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts The Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts

2005-02-23

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0502468v1

Astrophys.J.629:328-333,2005

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Submitted to ApJ; 13 pages, 6 figures, 2 tables

Scientific paper

10.1086/431579

We present optical and near-infrared searches for afterglow emission from the first four Swift bursts with accurate positions from the X-ray Telescope (XRT). Using telescopes at Las Campanas, Keck, and Palomar observatories we rapidly identified and followed up afterglows for three of the four bursts. The burst positions were also observed with the Very Large Array, but no radio afterglow emission was detected. The optical/NIR afterglows are fainter than about 75% of all afterglows detected to date, with GRB 050126 being the faintest, and were identified thanks to accurate and rapid positions from the XRT and rapid response with >1-m telescopes. This suggests that the fraction of dust-obscured bursts is small, <10% when combined with afterglows localized by the HETE-2 Soft X-ray Camera. The X-ray fluxes are typical of the known population, with the exception of GRB 050126 which has the faintest X-ray afterglow to date (normalized to t=10 hr), and was detected thanks to a response time of only 130 s after the burst. Finally, we find that all three optical/NIR afterglows are located <2 arcsec away from the nominal XRT positions, suggesting that the XRT is capable of delivering highly accurate positions, which will revolutionize afterglow studies.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

The Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts 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 Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Discovery of the Optical and Near-IR Afterglows of the First Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-398450