arXiv subjects

Andreja Gomboc

Publications and source records attributed to Andreja Gomboc.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

The host-galaxy response to the afterglow of GRB 100901A

For Gamma-Ray Burst 100901A, we have obtained Gemini-North and Very Large Telescope optical afterglow spectra at four epochs: one hour, one day, three days and one week after the burst, thanks to the afterglow remaining unusually bright at late times. Apart from a wealth of metal resonance lines, we also detect lines arising from fine-structure levels of the ground state of Fe II, and from metastable levels of Fe II and Ni II at the host redshift (z = 1.4084). These lines are found to vary significantly in time. The combination of the data and modelling results shows that we detect the fall of the Ni II 4 F9/2 metastable level population, which to date has not been observed. Assuming that the population of the excited states is due to the UV-radiation of the afterglow, we estimate an absorber distance of a few hundred pc. This appears to be a typical value when compared to similar studies. We detect two intervening absorbers (z = 1.3147, 1.3179). Despite the wide temporal range of the data, we do not see significant variation in the absorption lines of these two intervening systems.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2010

Duration and hardness ratio of Swift GRBs

We review the T_90 duration and hardness ratio of Swift Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). We focus on GRBs with known redshift and review their gamma properties in the GRBs rest frames. We find that GRBs number vs. T_90/(1+z) distribution shows a separation between two classes at 0.65 s. Furthermore, we find that the difference in hardness ratio between short and long bursts is not very pronounced and depends on energy channels used for comparison.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Optical flashes, reverse shocks and magnetization

Despite the pre-Swift expectation that bright optical flashes from reverse shocks would be prevalent in early-time afterglow emission, rapid response observations show this not to be the case. Although very bright at early times, some GRBs such as GRB 061007 and GRB 060418, lack the short-lived optical flash from the reverse shock within minutes after the GRB. In contrast, other optical afterglows, such as those of GRB 990123, GRB 021211, GRB 060111B, GRB 060117, GRB 061126, and recently GRB 080319B, show a steep-to-flat transition within first 10^3 s typical of a rapidly evolving reverse + forward shock combination. We review the presence and absence of the reverse shock components in optical afterglows and discuss the implications for the standard model and the magnetization of the fireball. We show that the previously predicted optical flashes are likely to occur at lower wavelengths, perhaps as low as radio wavelengths and, by using the case of GRB 061126 we show that the magnetic energy density in the ejecta, expressed as a fraction of the equipartion value, is a key physical parameter.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2007

Early Optical Polarization of a Gamma Ray Burst Afterglow

We report the optical polarization of a gamma ray burst (GRB) afterglow, obtained 203 seconds after the initial burst of gamma rays from GRB 060418, using a ring polarimeter on the robotic Liverpool Telescope. Our robust (2-sigma) upper limit on the percentage of polarization, less than 8%, coincides with the fireball deceleration time at the onset of the afterglow. The combination of the rate of decay of the optical brightness and the low polarization at this critical time constrains standard models of GRB ejecta, ruling out the presence of a large-scale ordered magnetic field in the emitting region.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2005

Effects of black hole's gravitational field on the luminosity of a star during close encounter

To complement hydrodynamic studies of the tidal disruption of the star by a massive black hole, we present the study of stellar luminosity and its variations, produced by the strong gravitational field of the black hole during a close encounter. By simulating the relativistically moving star and its emitted light and taking into account general relativistic effects on particle and light trajectories, our results show that the black hole's gravity alone induces apparent stellar luminosity variations on typical timescales of a few r_g/c (=5 sec m_bh/10^6 M_\odot) to a few 100 r_g/c (\sim 10 min m_bh/10^6 M_\odot), where r_g=Gm_bh/c^2. We discern different cases with respect to the strength of tidal interaction and focus on two: a) a star encountering a giant black hole traces space-time almost as a point particle, so that the apparent luminosity variations are dominated by clearly recognizable general relativistic effects and b) in a close encounter of a star with a black hole of similar size the stellar debris is spread about the black hole by processes where hydrodynamics plays an important role. We discuss limitations and results of our approach.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Stellar Rotation from GAIA Spectra

Stellar rotation influences our understanding of stellar structure and evolution, binary systems, clusters etc. and therefore the benefits of a large and highly accurate database on stellar rotation, obtained by GAIA, will be manifold. To study the prospects of GAIA measurement of projected rotational velocities v_rot sin i, we use synthetic stellar spectra to simulate the determination of v_rot sin i at different resolutions (R=5000 - 20000) and S/N (10-300). Results on the accuracy of v_rot sin i, presented here, show that GAIA will be capable to measure also low rotational velocities (~10 km/s), provided that the resolution is higher than 10.000, or preferably even higher.

astro-ph↗