Optical afterglow observations of the unusual short-duration gamma-ray burst GRB 040924

K. Y. Huang, Y. Urata, A. V. Filippenko, J. H. Hu, W. H. Ip, P. H. Kuo, W. Li, H. C. Lin, Z. Y. Lin, K. Makishima, K. Onda, Y. Qlu, T. Tamagawa

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Abstract

The 1 m telescope at Lulin Observatory and the 0.76 m Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope at Lick Observatory were used to observe the optical afterglow of the short-duration (1.2-1.5 s) gamma-ray burst GRB 040924. This object has a soft high-energy spectrum, thus making it an exceptional case, perhaps actually belonging to the short-duration tail of the long-duration GRBs. Our data, combined with other reported measurements, show that the early R-band light curve can be described by two power laws with index α = -1.07 (at t = 16-50 minutes) and α = -1.06 (at later times). The rather small difference in the spectral indices can be explained more easily by an afterglow model invoking a cooling break than by one with a jet break.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L93-L96
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume628
Issue number2 II
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2005

Keywords

  • Gamma rays: bursts

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