Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Troja, E.
• Sakamoto, T.
• Cenko, S. B.
• Lien, A.
• Gehrels, N.
• Castro-Tirado, A. J.
• Ricci, R.
• Capone, J.
• Toy, V.
• Kutyrev, A.
• Kawai, N.
• Cucchiara, A.
• Fruchter, A.
• Gorosabel, J.
• Jeong, S.
• Levan, A.
• Perley, D.
• Sanchez-Ramirez, R.
• Tanvir, N.
• Veilleux, S.

Titel

AN ACHROMATIC BREAK IN THE AFTERGLOW OF THE SHORT GRB 140903A: EVIDENCE FOR A NARROW JET

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2016-08, Vol.827 (2), p.102-102

Ort / Verlag

United States: The American Astronomical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

EZB Electronic Journals Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• ABSTRACT We report the results of our observing campaign on GRB 140903A, a nearby (z = 0.351) short-duration (T90 ∼ 0.3 s) gamma-ray burst discovered by Swift. We monitored the X-ray afterglow with Chandra up to 15 days after the burst and detected a steeper decay of the X-ray flux after tj 1 day. Continued monitoring at optical and radio wavelengths showed a similar decay in flux at nearly the same time, and we interpret it as evidence of a narrowly collimated jet. By using the standard fireball model to describe the afterglow evolution, we derive a jet opening angle θj 5° and a collimation-corrected total energy release E 2 erg. We further discuss the nature of the GRB progenitor system. Three main lines disfavor a massive star progenitor: the properties of the prompt gamma-ray emission, the age and low star formation rate of the host galaxy, and the lack of a bright supernova. We conclude that this event likely originated from a compact binary merger.