Exploring Broadband GRB Behavior During gamma-ray Emission
Abstract
The robotic ROTSE-III telescope network detected prompt optical emission contemporaneous with the gamma-ray emission of Swift events GRB051109A and GRB051111. Both datasets have continuous coverage at high signal-to-noise levels from the prompt phase onwards, thus the early observations are readily compared to the Swift XRT and BAT high energy detections. In both cases, the optical afterglow is established, declining steadily during the prompt emission. For GRB051111, there is evidence of an excess optical component during the prompt emission. The component is consistent with the flux spectrally extrapolated from the gamma-rays, using the gamma-ray spectral index. A compilation of spectral information from previous prompt detections shows that such a component is unusual. The existence of two prompt optical components - one connected to the high-energy emission, the other to separate afterglow flux, as indicated in GRB051111 - is not compatible with a simple ``external-external'' shock model for the GRB and its afterglow.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0611414,
title = {Exploring Broadband GRB Behavior During gamma-ray Emission},
author = {S. A. Yost and H. F. Swan and E. S. Rykoff and F. Aharonian and C. W. Akerlof and A. Alday and M. C. B. Ashley and S. Barthelmy and D. Burrows and D. L. Depoy and R. J. Dufour and J. D. Eastman and R. D. Forgey and N. Gehrels and E. Göğüş and T. Güver and J. P. Halpern and L. C. Hardin and D. Horns and U. Kızıloǧlu and H. A. Krimm and S. Lepine and E. P. Liang and J. L. Marshall and T. A. McKay and T. Mineo and N. Mirabal and M. Özel and A. Phillips and J. L. Prieto and R. M. Quimby and P. Romano and G. Rowell and W. Rujopakarn and B. E. Schaefer and J. M. Silverman and R. Siverd and M. Skinner and D. A. Smith and I. A. Smith and S. Tonnesen and E. Troja and W. T. Vestrand and J. C. Wheeler and J. Wren and F. Yuan and B. Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0611414},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
ApJ accepted. 32 pages (in preprint form), 5 tables, 5 figures