Related papers: Improving science yield for NASA Swift with automa…
We have analysed all the X-ray images centred on Gamma Ray Bursts generated by Swift over the last 15 years using automatic tools that do not require any expertise in X-ray astronomy, producing results in excellent agreement with previous…
Being able to quickly select among gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) seen by the Swift satellite those which are high-z candidates would give ground-based observers a better chance to determine a redshift for such distant GRBs. Information about…
Telescope scheduling is the task of determining the best sequence of observations (pointings and filter choices) for a survey system. Because it is computationally intractable to optimize over all possible multi-year sequences of…
Targeted spectroscopic exoplanet surveys face the challenge of maximizing their planet detection rates by means of careful planning. The number of possible observation combinations for a large exoplanet survey, i.e., the sequence of…
The currently accepted model for gamma-ray burst phenomena involves the violent formation of a rapidly rotating solar-mass black hole. Gravitational waves should be associated with the black-hole formation, and their detection would permit…
Long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) constitute an important tool to study the Universe near and beyond the epoch of reionization. We delineate here the characteristics of an 'ideal' instrument for the search of GRBs at z>6-10. We find that the…
Astronomy relies heavily on time domain observations. To maximize the scientific yield of such observations, astronomers must carefully match the observational cadence to the phenomena of interest. This presents significant scheduling…
The currently accepted model for gamma-ray burst phenomena involves the violent formation of a rapidly rotating solar mass black hole. Gravitational waves should be associated with the black-hole formation, and their detection would permit…
A good fraction of GRBs detected by Swift are at a large redshift (up to z=6.3, so far). Their study allows us to investigate, among other things, the cosmic star formation in the early Universe (possibly up to the re-ionization era) and…
The dependence of Swift's detection sensitivity on a burst's temporal and spectral properties shapes the detected burst population. Using simplified models of the detector hardware and the burst trigger system I find that Swift is more…
High-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) beyond redshift $\sim6$ are potentially powerful tools to probe the distant early Universe. Their detections in large numbers and at truly high redshifts call for the next generation of high-energy…
We perform a comprehensive stacking analysis of data collected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) of gamma-ray bursts (GRB) localized by the Swift spacecraft, which were not detected by the LAT but which fell within the instrument's…
We report on the temporal and spectral characteristics of the early X-ray emission from the Gamma Ray Burst 051117A as observed by Swift. The superb quality of the early X-ray light-curve and spectra of this source, one of the brightest…
We present planning challenges, methods and preliminary results for a new model-based paradigm for earth observing systems in adaptive remote sensing. Our heuristically guided constraint optimization planner produces coordinated plans for…
Context: Gamma Ray Burst models predict the broadband spectral evolution and the temporal evolution of the energy flux. In contrast, standard data analysis tools and data repositories provide count-rate data, or use single flux conversion…
The Dynamic Targeting (DT) mission concept is an approach to satellite observation in which a lookahead sensor gathers information about the upcoming environment and uses this information to intelligently plan observations. Previous work…
Ten years of operations of the Swift satellite have allow us to collect a small sample of long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) at redshift larger than six. I will review here the present status of this research field and discuss the possible use of…
The Swift Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) is a huge (5200 cm2) coded aperture imager that will detect gamma-ray bursts in real time and provide a location that the Swift satellite will use to slew the optical and x-ray telescopes. The huge size…
As the number of observed Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) continues to grow, follow-up resources need to be used more efficiently in order to maximize science output from limited telescope time. As such, it is becoming increasingly important to…
The durations of 388 gamma-ray bursts, detected by the Swift satellite, are studied statistically in order to search for their subgroups. Then the results are compared with the results obtained earlier from the BATSE database. The standard…