The GRB coordinates network (GCN): A status report

Barthelmy, S. D.; Butterworth, P. S.; Cline, T. L.; Gehrels, N.; Marshall, F. E.; Takeshima, T.; Connaughton, V.; Kippen, R. M.; Kouveliotou, C.; Robinson, C. R.

doi:10.1063/1.55426

Cited by 42 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…GOTO is a fully-autonomous telescope and is controlled by the GOTO Telescope Control System (G-TeCS; Dyer et al 2018Dyer et al , 2020a. The G-TeCS software includes an alert monitor called the sentinel, which receives GW and GRB alerts released through the NASA Gamma-ray Coordinates Network (GCN) (Barthelmy et al 1998). Once follow-up targets have been generated by GOTO sentinel for an event they are added to the GOTO observation database from which the automated scheduler will select targets and instruct the telescope to move the mount to the requested position and take the requested exposures.…”

Section: Goto Observing Strategy For Grbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

Mong

Ackley

Galloway

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The typical detection rate of ∼1 gamma-ray burst (GRB) per day by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) provides a valuable opportunity to further our understanding of GRB physics. However, the large uncertainty of the Fermi localization typically prevents rapid identification of multi-wavelength counterparts. We report the follow-up of 93 Fermi GRBs with the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) prototype on La Palma. We selected 53 events (based on favourable observing conditions) for detailed analysis, and to demonstrate our strategy of searching for optical counterparts. We apply a filtering process consisting of both automated and manual steps to 60 085 candidates initially, rejecting all but 29, arising from 15 events. With ≈3 GRB afterglows expected to be detectable with GOTO from our sample, most of the candidates are unlikely to be related to the GRBs. Since we did not have multiple observations for those candidates, we cannot confidently confirm the association between the transients and the GRBs. Our results show that GOTO can effectively search for GRB optical counterparts thanks to its large field of view of ≈40 square degrees and its depth of ≈20 mag. We also detail several methods to improve our overall performance for future follow-up programs of Fermi GRBs.

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Section: Goto Observing Strategy For Grbsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

Mong

Ackley

Galloway

et al. 2021

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…As the duration of GRBs is of the order of <2 (∼10-100) s for short (long) bursts, followup observations must rely on fast communications. For this reason, the GRB Coordinates Network (GCN)/Transient Astronomy Network (TAN) was started in 1992 [35]. The GCN/TAN system currently distributes the locations of GRBs and other transients (in the Notices) and also the reports (called Circulars) of the follow-up observations.…”

Section: The Gcn/tan Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Energy Alerts in the Multi-Messenger Era

Dorner

Mostafá

Satalecka³

2021

Universe

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The observation of electromagnetic counterparts to both high energy neutrinos and gravitational waves marked the beginning of a new era in astrophysics. The multi-messenger approach allows us to gain new insights into the most energetic events in the Universe such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovas, and black hole mergers. Real-time multi-messenger alerts are the key component of the observational strategies to unravel the transient signals expected from astrophysical sources. Focusing on the high-energy regime, we present a historical perspective of multi-messenger observations, the detectors and observational techniques used to study them, the status of the multi-messenger alerts and the most significant results, together with an overview of the future prospects in the field.

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“…The ultimate reward for the Gamma-Ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN) [1] came when the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment (ROTSE) detected prompt optical emission from GRB 990123 [2]. 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.…”

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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The GRB coordinates network (GCN): A status report

Cited by 42 publications

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Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

Searching for Fermi GRB optical counterparts with the prototype Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO)

High-Energy Alerts in the Multi-Messenger Era

LOTIS upper limits and the prompt OT from GRB 990123

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