English

GECAM Localization of High Energy Transients and the Systematic Error

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2023-03-08 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) is a pair of microsatellites (i.e. GECAM-A and GECAM-B) dedicated to monitoring gamma-ray transients including gravitational waves high-energy electromagnetic counterparts, Gamma-ray Bursts, Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters, Solar Flares and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes. Since launch in December 2020, GECAM-B has detected hundreds of astronomical and terrestrial events. For these bursts, localization is the key for burst identification and classification as well as follow-up observations in multi-wavelength. Here, we propose a Bayesian localization method with Poisson data with Gaussian background profile likelihood to localize GECAM bursts based on the burst counts distribution in detectors with different orientations. We demonstrate that this method can work well for all kinds of bursts, especially for extremely short ones. In addition, we propose a new method to estimate the systematic error of localization based on a confidence level test, which can overcome some problems of the existing method in literature. We validate this method by Monte Carlo simulations, and then apply it to a burst sample with accurate location and find that the mean value of the systematic error of GECAM-B localization is 2.5\sim 2.5^{\circ}. By considering this systematic error, we can obtain a reliable localization probability map for GECAM bursts. Our methods can be applied to other gamma-ray monitors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2211.15570,
  title  = {GECAM Localization of High Energy Transients and the Systematic Error},
  author = {Yi Zhao and Wang-Chen Xue and Shao-Lin Xiong and Yuan-Hao Wang and Jia-Cong Liu and Qi Liuo and Yan-Qiu Zhang and Jian-Chao Sun and Xiao-Yun Zhao and Ce Cai and Shuo Xiao and Yue Huang and Xiao-Bo Li and Zhen Zhang and Jin-Yuan Liao and Sheng Yang and Rui Qiao and Dong-Ya Guo and Chao Zheng and Qi-Bin Yi and Sheng-Lun Xie and Zhi-Wei Guo and Chao-Yang Li and Chen-Wei Wang and Wen-Jun Tan and Yue Wang and Wen-Xi Peng and Shi-Jie Zheng and Jian-Jian He and Ping Wang and Jin Wang and Xiang Ma and Xin-Ying Song and Hong-Mei Zhang and Bing Li and Peng Zhang and Hong Wu and Yan-Qi Du and Jing Liang and Guo-Ying Zhao and Xin-Qiao Li and Xiang-Yang Wen and Zheng-Hua An and Xi-Lei Sun and Yan-Bing Xu and Fan Zhang and Da-Li Zhang and Ke Gong and Ya-Qing Liu and Xiao-Hua Liang and Xiao-Jing Liu and Min Gao and Jin-Zhou Wang and Li-Ming Song and Gang Chen and Ke-Ke Zhang and Xing-Bo Han and Hai-Yan Wu and Tai Hu and Hao Geng and Fang-Jun Lu and Shu Zhang and Shuang-Nan Zhang and Gao-Peng Lu and Ming Zeng and Heng Yu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2211.15570},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

The paper has been accepted by Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series