Real‐Time Optical Flux Limits from Gamma‐Ray Bursts Measured by the Gamma‐Ray Optical Counterpart Search Experiment

Park, H. S.; Ables, E.; Band, D. L.; Barthelmy, S. D.; Bionta, R.; Butterworth, P. S.; Cline, T.; Ferguson, Donald H.; Fishman, G. J.; Gehrels, N.; Hurley, K.; Kouveliotou, C.; Lee, B. C.; Meegan, C.; Ott, L.; Parker, Eric L.

doi:10.1086/304860

Cited by 13 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…After many years of unsuccessful attempts to catch the optical signal of a γ -ray burst in progress (see e.g. McNamara et al 1995, Krimm et al 1996, Hudec & Soldan 1995, Lee et al 1997, Park et al 1997, the first such simultaneous detection was made of GRB 990123 by Akerlof et al (1999). The robotic camera ROTSE, triggered by BATSE, started a sequence of optical Figure 16 The R light curve of GRB 980326, with model curves representing the power-law decay of a relativistic afterglow superposed with the light curve of SN 1998bw, shifted to various redshifts .…”

Section: Prompt Optical Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Paradijs

Kouveliotou

Wijers

2000

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

322

248

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The discovery of counterparts in X-ray and optical to radio wavelengths has revolutionized the study of γ -ray bursts, until recently the most enigmatic of astrophysical phenomena. We now know that γ -ray bursts are the biggest explosions in nature, caused by the ejection of ultrarelativistic matter from a powerful energy source and its subsequent collision with its environment. We have just begun to uncover a connection between supernovae and γ -ray bursts, and are finally constraining the properties of the ultimate source of γ -ray burst energy. We review here the observations that have led to this breakthrough in the field; we describe the basic theory of the fireball model and discuss the theoretical understanding that has been gained from interpreting the new wealth of data on γ -ray bursts.

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Section: Prompt Optical Emissionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Paradijs

Kouveliotou

Wijers

2000

Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.

322

248

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“…Rapid follow-up observations in the optical are critical to understand the physical processes of GRBs. There are quite a few small robotic telescopes, in addition to ROTSE-III, that have been built and installed around the world in order to rapidly search for GRB optical counterparts, e.g., GROCSE (Park et al 1997), TAROT (Klotz et al 2009), SkyNet 4 , WIDGET (Urata et al 2011), MASTER 5 , Pi of the Sky (Burd et al 2005), RAPTOR (Vestrand et al 2002), REM (Zerbi & Rem Team 2001), and Watcher GRBs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Optical Luminosity Function of Gamma-Ray Bursts Deduced From Rotse-Iii Observations

Cui

Wei

et al. 2014

ApJ

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We present the optical luminosity function (LF) of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) estimated from a uniform sample of 58 GRBs from observations with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment III (ROTSE-III). Our GRB sample is divided into two sub-samples: detected afterglows (18 GRBs), and those with upper limits (40 GRBs). The R band fluxes 100s after the onset of the burst for these two sub-samples are derived. The optical LFs at 100s are fitted by assuming that the co-moving GRB rate traces the star-formation rate. The detection function of ROTSE-III is taken into account during the fitting of the optical LFs by using Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the cumulative distribution of optical emission at 100s is well-described with an exponential rise and power-law decay (ERPLD), broken power-law (BPL), and Schechter LFs. A single power-law (SPL) LF, on the other hand, is ruled out with high confidence.

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“…Although this discovery marks another milestone in comprehending the physics of GRBs, bright optical tran-sients (OTs) may be the exception rather than the rule. Both LOTIS and ROTSE have unsuccessfully attempted to detect these predicted flashes on many occasions [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Although some of the non-detections may be attributed to large extinction, GRB 990123 demonstrated that the progenitor is not always obscured.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

LOTIS upper limits and the prompt OT from GRB 990123

Williams¹,

Hartmann²,

Park³

et al. 2000

AIP Conference Proceedings

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GRB 990123 established the existence of prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (LOTIS) has been conducting a fully automated search for this kind of simultaneous low energy emission from GRBs since October 1996. Although LOTIS has obtained simultaneous, or near simultaneous, coverage of the error boxes obtained with BATSE, IPN, XTE, and BeppoSAX for several GRBs, image analysis resulted in only upper limits. The unique gamma-ray properties of GRB 990123, such as very large fluence (top 0.4%) and hard spectrum, complicate comparisons with more typical bursts. We scale and compare gamma-ray properties, and in some cases afterglow properties, from the best LOTIS events to those of GRB 990123 in an attempt to determine whether the prompt optical emission of this event is representative of all GRBs. Furthermore, using LOTIS upper limits in conjunction with the relativistic blast wave model, we weakly constrain the GRB and afterglow parameters such as density of the circumburster medium and bulk Lorentz factor of the ejecta.

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Real‐Time Optical Flux Limits from Gamma‐Ray Bursts Measured by the Gamma‐Ray Optical Counterpart Search Experiment

Cited by 13 publications

References 42 publications

Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

The Optical Luminosity Function of Gamma-Ray Bursts Deduced From Rotse-Iii Observations

LOTIS upper limits and the prompt OT from GRB 990123

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