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THE NEEDLE in the 100 deg<sup>2</sup> HAYSTACK: UNCOVERING AFTERGLOWS of FERMI GRB<inf>s</inf> with the PALOMAR TRANSIENT FACTORY

Singer, LP, Kasliwal, MM, Cenko, SB, Perley, DA, Anderson, GE, Anupama, GC, Arcavi, I, Bhalerao, V, Bue, BD, Cao, Y, Connaughton, V, Corsi, A, Cucchiara, A, Fender, RP, Fox, DB, Gehrels, N, Goldstein, A, Gorosabel, J, Horesh, A, Hurley, K , Johansson, J, Kann, DA, Kouveliotou, C, Huang, K, Kulkarni, SR, Masci, F, Nugent, P, Rau, A, Rebbapragada, UD, Staley, TD, Svinkin, D, Thöne, CC, Postigo, ADU, Urata, Y and Weinstein, A (2015) THE NEEDLE in the 100 deg<sup>2</sup> HAYSTACK: UNCOVERING AFTERGLOWS of FERMI GRB<inf>s</inf> with the PALOMAR TRANSIENT FACTORY. The Astrophysical Journal, 806 (1). ISSN 1538-4357

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Abstract

The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has greatly expanded the number and energy window of observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). However, the coarse localizations of tens to a hundred square degrees provided by the Fermi GRB Monitor instrument have posed a formidable obstacle to locating the bursts' host galaxies, measuring their redshifts, and tracking their panchromatic afterglows. We have built a target-of-opportunity mode for the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory in order to perform targeted searches for Fermi afterglows. Here, we present the results of one year of this program: 8 afterglow discoveries out of 35 searches. Two of the bursts with detected afterglows (GRBs 130702A and 140606B) were at low redshift (z = 0.145 and 0.384, respectively) and had spectroscopically confirmed broad-line Type Ic supernovae. We present our broadband follow-up including spectroscopy as well as X-ray, UV, optical, millimeter, and radio observations. We study possible selection effects in the context of the total Fermi and Swift GRB samples. We identify one new outlier on the Amati relation. We find that two bursts are consistent with a mildly relativistic shock breaking out from the progenitor star rather than the ultra-relativistic internal shock mechanism that powers standard cosmological bursts. Finally, in the context of the Zwicky Transient Facility, we discuss how we will continue to expand this effort to find optical counterparts of binary neutron star mergers that may soon be detected by Advanced LIGO and Virgo. © 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences, 0305 Organic Chemistry, 0306 Physical Chemistry (Incl. Structural)
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions: Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher: American Astronomical Society
Date Deposited: 22 Feb 2017 09:02
Last Modified: 18 May 2022 10:42
DOI or ID number: 10.1088/0004-637X/806/1/52
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5691
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