Detection of a Very Bright Optical Flare from the Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.29

Boër, M.; Atteia, J. L.; Damerdji, Y.; Gendre, B.; Klotz, A.; Stratta, G.

doi:10.1086/501048

Cited by 89 publications

(113 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For all the considered metallicities, we find that the equivalent column density decreases with time at a high significance level (see Table 1 and Fig. 1; see also Watson et al 2006, Boër et al 2006). In particular, we note that the GRB spectrum gets softer as time passes (see Table 1).…”

Section: Swift Datamentioning

confidence: 60%

“…The thin solid line (and right y-axis) shows the amount of absorption that would be observed in the J band (rest frame ∼7.2 eV) if the X-ray-absorbing medium were polluted with Galactic-like dust (Mathis et al 1977). The optical transient was observed at s (i.e., 27 s rest frame; Boër et al 2006) Spectra are grouped to 30 counts per spectral bin. A systematic error of 3% has been added to cope with the uncertainties in the XRT response matrices.…”

Section: Swift Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Metal-rich Molecular Cloud Surrounds GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.3

Campana

Lazzati

Ripamonti

et al. 2006

ApJ

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GRB 050904 is the gamma-ray burst with the highest measured redshift. We performed time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy of the late GRB and early afterglow emission. We find robust evidence for a decrease with time of the soft X-ray-absorbing column. We model the evolution of the column density due to the flash ionization of the GRB and early afterglow photons. This allows us to constrain the metallicity and geometry of the absorbing cloud. We conclude that the progenitor of GRB 050904 was a massive star embedded in a dense metal-enriched molecular cloud with . This is the first local measurement of metallicity in the close environment Z տ 0.03 Z , of a GRB and one of the highest redshift metallicity measurements. We also find that the dust associated with the cloud cannot be similar to that of our Galaxy but must be either sizably depleted or dominated by silicate grains. We discuss the implications of these results for GRB progenitors and high-redshift star formation.

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Section: Swift Datamentioning

confidence: 60%

Section: Swift Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

A Metal-rich Molecular Cloud Surrounds GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.3

Campana

Lazzati

Ripamonti

et al. 2006

ApJ

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“…We note that there are no intermediate bursts with extremely bright optical peak emission, whereas there are a few cases for long bursts (Akerlof et al 1999;Boër et al 2006;Jelínek et al 2006;Kann et al 2007;Bloom et al 2009;Racusin et al 2008). This may be indicative of differences in the characteristics or close environment of the progenitors producing the GRB but it Histogram showing the distribution of the spectral slope between optical and X-rays.…”

Section: Optical Afterglowsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Searching for differences inSwift’s intermediate GRBs

Postigo

Horváth²,

Vereš

et al. 2010

A&A

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Context. Gamma-ray bursts are usually classified in terms their high-energy emission into either short-duration or long-duration bursts, which presumably reflect two different types of progenitors. However, it has been shown on statistical grounds that a third, intermediate population is needed in this classification scheme, although an extensive study of the properties of this class has so far not been performed. The large amount of follow-up studies generated during the Swift era allows us to have a sufficient sample to attempt a study of this third population through the properties of their prompt emission and their afterglows. Aims. To understand the differences of the intermediate population, we study a sample of GRBs observed by Swift during its first four years of operation. The sample contains only bursts with measured redshifts since these data help us to derive intrinsic properties. Methods. We search for differences in the properties of the three groups of bursts, which we quantify using a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test whenever possible. Results. Intermediate bursts are found to be less energetic and have dimmer afterglows than long GRBs, especially when considering the X-ray light curves, which are on average one order of magnitude fainter than long bursts. There is a less significant trend in the redshift distribution that places intermediate bursts closer than long bursts. Except for this, intermediate bursts show similar properties to long bursts. In particular, they follow the E peak versus E iso correlation and have, on average, positive spectral lags with a distribution similar to that of long bursts. As for long GRBs, they normally have an associated supernova, although some intermediate bursts have been found to contain no supernova component. Conclusions. This study shows that intermediate bursts differ from short bursts, but exhibit no significant differences from long bursts apart from their lower brightness. We suggest that the physical difference between intermediate and long bursts could be explained by being produced by similar progenitors, of the former being the ejecta thin shells and the latter thick shells.

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“…This behaviour was generally interpreted as emission from the external reverse shock (Sari & Piran 1999b;Mészáros & Rees 1999). A reverse shock was also likely observed in GRB 050904 (Boër et al 2006). A different behaviour was observed for GRB 041219A Blake et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Panchromatic study of GRB 060124: from precursor to afterglow

Romano¹,

Campana²,

Chincarini

et al. 2006

A&A

216

173

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We present observations of GRB 060124, the first event for which both the prompt and the afterglow emission could be observed simultaneously and in their entirety by the three Swift instruments. Indeed, Swift-BAT triggered on a precursor ∼570 s before the main burst peak, and this allowed Swift to repoint the narrow field instruments to the burst position ∼350 s before the main burst occurred. GRB 060124 also triggered Konus-Wind, which observed the prompt emission in a harder gamma-ray band (up to 2 MeV). Thanks to these exceptional circumstances, the temporal and spectral properties of the prompt emission can be studied in the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray ranges. While the X-ray emission (0.2-10 keV) clearly tracks the gamma-ray burst, the optical component follows a different pattern, likely indicating a different origin, possibly the onset of external shocks. The prompt GRB spectrum shows significant spectral evolution, with both the peak energy and the spectral index varying. As observed in several long GRBs, significant lags are measured between the hard-and low-energy components, showing that this behaviour extends over 3 decades in energy. The GRB peaks are also much broader at soft energies. This is related to the temporal evolution of the spectrum, and can be accounted for by assuming that the electron spectral index softened with time. The burst energy (E iso ∼ 5 × 10 53 erg) and average peak energy (E p ∼ 300 keV) make GRB 060124 consistent with the Amati relation. The X-ray afterglow is characterized by a decay which presents a break at t b ∼ 10 5 s.

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Detection of a Very Bright Optical Flare from the Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.29

Cited by 89 publications

References 13 publications

A Metal-rich Molecular Cloud Surrounds GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.3

A Metal-rich Molecular Cloud Surrounds GRB 050904 at Redshift 6.3

Searching for differences inSwift’s intermediate GRBs

Panchromatic study of GRB 060124: from precursor to afterglow

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