Feasibility of a Small, Rapid Optical-to-IR Response, Next Generation Gamma Ray Burst Mission
Abstract
We present motivations for and study feasibility of a small, rapid optical to IR response gamma ray burst (GRB) space observatory. By analyzing existing GRB data, we give realistic detection rates for X-ray and optical/IR instruments of modest size under actual flight conditions. Given new capabilities of fast optical/IR response (about 1 s to target) and simultaneous multi-band imaging, such an observatory can have a reasonable event rate, likely leading to new science. Requiring a Swift-like orbit, duty cycle, and observing constraints, a Swift-BAT scaled down to 190 square cm of detector area would still detect and locate about 27 GRB per yr. for a trigger threshold of 6.5 sigma. About 23 percent of X-ray located GRB would be detected optically for a 10 cm diameter instrument (about 6 per yr. for the 6.5 sigma X-ray trigger).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1212.6570,
title = {Feasibility of a Small, Rapid Optical-to-IR Response, Next Generation Gamma Ray Burst Mission},
author = {B. Grossan and G. F. Smoot and V. V. Bogomolov and S. I. Svertilov and N. N. Vedenkin and M. Panasyuk and B. Goncharov and G. Rozhkov and K. Saleev and E. Grobovskoj and A. S. Krasnov and V. S. Morozenko and V. I. Osedlo and E. Rogkov and T. V. Vachenko and E. V. Linder},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.6570},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Elaborated text version of a poster presented at 2012 Malaga/Marbella symposium