Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2445/45374
Title: | The extraordinarily bright optical afterglow of GRB 991208 and its host galaxy |
Author: | Castro-Tirado, A. J. Sokolov, V. V. Castro Cerón, J. M. Zapatero-Osorio, M. R. Caon, N. Blake, C. Wall, J. Benetti, S. Magazzù, Alessandro Ghinassi, F. Paredes i Poy, Josep Maria Martí Ribas, Josep Xanthopoulos, E. Kristen, H. E. Smoker, J. Hurley, K. |
Keywords: | Astronomia de raigs gamma Raigs gamma Galàxies Cosmologia Esclat de raigs gamma Gamma ray astronomy Gamma rays Galaxies Cosmology Gamma ray bursts |
Issue Date: | 2001 |
Publisher: | Springer Verlag |
Abstract: | Observations of the extraordinarily bright optical afterglow (OA) of GRB 991208 started 2.1 d after the event. The flux decay constant of the OA in the R-band is -2.30 +/- 0.07 up to 5 d, which is very likely due to the jet effect, and after that it is followed by a much steeper decay with constant -3.2 +/- 0.2, the fastest one ever seen in a GRB OA. A negative detection in several all-sky films taken simultaneously to the event implies either a previous additional break prior to 2 d after the occurrence of the GRB (as expected from the jet effect). The existence of a second break might indicate a steepening in the electron spectrum or the superposition of two events. Once the afterglow emission vanished, contribution of a bright underlying SN is found, but the light curve is not sufficiently well sampled to rule out a dust echo explanation. Our determination of z = 0.706 indicates that GRB 991208 is at 3.7 Gpc, implying an isotropic energy release of 1.15 x 10E53 erg which may be relaxed by beaming by a factor > 100. Precise astrometry indicates that the GRB coincides within 0.2' with the host galaxy, thus given support to a massive star origin. The absolute magnitude is M_B = -18.2, well below the knee of the galaxy luminosity function and we derive a star-forming rate of 11.5 +/- 7.1 Mo/yr. The quasi-simultaneous broad-band photometric spectral energy distribution of the afterglow is determined 3.5 day after the burst (Dec 12.0) implying a cooling frequency below the optical band, i.e. supporting a jet model with p = -2.30 as the index of the power-law electron distribution. |
Note: | Versió postprint del document publicat a: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010247 |
It is part of: | Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2001, vol. 370, p. 398-406 |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2445/45374 |
Related resource: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010247 |
ISSN: | 0004-6361 |
Appears in Collections: | Articles publicats en revistes (Física Quàntica i Astrofísica) |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
186501.pdf | 294.08 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.