The afterglow and early-type host galaxy of the short GRB 150101B at z = 0.1343
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
- Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003 (United States)
- Astrophysical Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 251B Clippinger Lab, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701 (United States)
- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
- Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL (United Kingdom)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)
- Department of Physics, 725 21st Street NW, The George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052 (United States)
We present the discovery of the X-ray and optical afterglows of the short-duration GRB 150101B, pinpointing the event to an early-type host galaxy at z = 0.1343 ± 0.0030. This makes GRB 150101B the most nearby short gamma-ray burst (GRB) with an early-type host galaxy discovered to date. Fitting the spectral energy distribution of the host galaxy results in an inferred stellar mass of ≈7×10{sup 10} M{sub ⊙}, stellar population age of ≈2–2.5 Gyr, and star formation rate of ≲0.4 M {sub ⊙} yr{sup −1}. The host of GRB 150101B is one of the largest and most luminous short GRB host galaxies, with a B-band luminosity of ≈4.3L{sup ∗} and half-light radius of ≈8 kpc. GRB 150101B is located at a projected distance of 7.35 ± 0.07 kpc from its host center and lies on a faint region of its host rest-frame optical light. Its location, combined with the lack of associated supernova, is consistent with an NS–NS/NS–BH merger progenitor. From modeling the evolution of the broadband afterglow, we calculate isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray and kinetic energies of ≈1.3×10{sup 49} erg and ≈(6--14)×10{sup 51} erg, respectively, a circumburst density of ≈(0.8--4)×10{sup −5} cm{sup −3}, and a jet opening angle of ≳9°. Using observations extending to ≈30 days, we place upper limits of ≲(2--4)×10{sup 41} erg s{sup −1} on associated kilonova emission. We compare searches following previous short GRBs to existing kilonova models and demonstrate the difficulty of performing effective kilonova searches from cosmological short GRBs using current ground-based facilities. We show that at the Advanced LIGO/VIRGO horizon distance of 200 Mpc, searches reaching depths of ≈23–24 AB mag are necessary to probe a meaningful range of kilonova models.
- OSTI ID:
- 22868316
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 833, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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