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arXiv · 1608.08626

The Afterglow and Early-Type Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 150101B at z=0.1343

Wen-fai Fong·Raffaella Margutti·Ryan Chornock·Edo Berger·Benjamin J. Shappee·Andrew J. Levan·Nial R. Tanvir·Nathan Smith·Peter A. Milne·Tanmoy Laskar·Derek B. Fox·Ragnhild Lunnan·Peter K. Blanchard·Jens Hjorth·Klaas Wiersema·Alexander J. van der Horst·Dennis Zaritsky
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Abstract

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 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 ~7x10^10 M_sol, stellar population age of ~2-2.5 Gyr, and star formation rate of <0.4 M_sol yr^-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* 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 a NS-NS/NS-BH merger progenitor. From modeling the evolution of the broad-band afterglow, we calculate isotropic-equivalent gamma-ray and kinetic energies of ~1.3x10^49 erg and ~(6-14)x10^51 erg, respectively, a circumburst density of ~(0.8-4)x10^-5 cm^-3, and a jet opening angle of >9 deg. Using observations extending to ~30 days, we place upper limits of <(2-4)x10^41 erg s^-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.

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Wen-fai Fong, Raffaella Margutti, Ryan Chornock, Edo Berger, Benjamin J. Shappee, Andrew J. Levan, Nial R. Tanvir, Nathan Smith, Peter A. Milne, Tanmoy Laskar, Derek B. Fox, Ragnhild Lunnan, Peter K. Blanchard, Jens Hjorth, Klaas Wiersema, Alexander J. van der Horst, Dennis Zaritsky. 2016-08-30. The Afterglow and Early-Type Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 150101B at z=0.1343. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2F833%2F2%2F151

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