A Search for Early Optical Emission from Short and Long Duration Gamma-ray Bursts
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts of short duration may harbor vital clues to the range of phenomena producing bursts. However, recent progress from the observation of optical counterparts has not benefitted the study of short bursts. We have searched for early optical emission from six gamma-ray bursts using the ROTSE-I telephoto array. Three of these events were of short duration, including GRB 980527 which is among the brightest short bursts yet observed. The data consist of unfiltered CCD optical images taken in response to BATSE triggers delivered via the GCN. For the first time, we have analyzed the entire 16 degree by 16 degree field covered for five of these bursts. In addition, we discuss a search for the optical counterpart to GRB 000201, a well-localized long burst. Single image sensitivities range from 13th to 14th magnitude around 10 s after the initial burst detection, and 14 - 15.8 one hour later. No new optical counterparts were discovered in this analysis suggesting short burst optical and gamma-ray fluxes are uncorrelated.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0104208,
title = {A Search for Early Optical Emission from Short and Long Duration Gamma-ray Bursts},
author = {Robert Kehoe and Carl Akerlof and Richard Balsano and Scott Barthelmy and Jeff Bloch and Paul Butterworth and Don Casperson and Tom Cline and Sandra Fletcher and Galen Gisler and Kevin Hurley and Marc Kippen and Brian Lee and Stuart Marshall and Tim McKay and Eli Rykoff and Don Smith and Tom Vestrand and Jim Wren},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0104208},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 2 figures, subm. to ApJ Lett