The Zwicky Transient Facility recently announced the detection of an optical transient AT2020blt at redshift z=2.9, consistent with the afterglow of an on-axis gamma-ray burst. However, no prompt emission was observed. We analyse AT2020blt with detailed models, showing the data are best explained as the afterglow of an on-axis long gamma-ray burst, ruling out other hypotheses such as a cocoon and a low-Lorentz factor jet. We search \textit{Fermi} data for prompt emission, setting deeper upper limits on the prompt emission than in the original detection paper. Together with KONUS-\textit{Wind} observations, we show that the gamma-ray efficiency of AT2020blt is ≲0.3−4.5%. We speculate that AT2020blt and AT2021any belong to the low-efficiency tail of long gamma-ray burst distributions that are beginning to be readily observed due to the capabilities of new observatories like the Zwicky Transient Facility.
@article{arxiv.2106.01556,
title = {Low-efficiency long gamma-ray bursts: A case study with AT2020blt},
author = {Nikhil Sarin and Rachel Hamburg and Eric Burns and Gregory Ashton and Paul D. Lasky and Gavin P. Lamb},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.01556},
year = {2022}
}