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An Untriggered Search for Optical Bursts | | Robert Kehoe
; Carl Akerlof
; Richard Balsano
; Jeff Bloch
; Don Casperson
; Sandra Fletcher
; Galen Gisler
; Brian Lee
; Stuart Marshall
; Timothy McKay
; Eli Rykoff
; Donald Smith
; Tom Vestrand
; Jim Wren
; | | Date: |
1 May 2002 | | Journal: | Astrophys.J. 577 (2002) 845-852 | | Subject: | astro-ph | | Abstract: | We present an untriggered search for optical bursts with the ROTSE-I telephoto array. Observations were taken which monitor an effective 256 square degree field continuously over 125 hours to m_{ROTSE}=15.7. The uniquely large field, moderate limiting magnitude and fast cadence of $sim$10 minutes permits transient searches in a new region of sensitivity. Our search reveals no candidate events. To quantify this result, we simulate potential optical bursts with peak magnitude, m_{p}, at t=10 s, which fade as f=(frac{t}{t_{0}}) ^{alpha_{t}}, where alpha_t < 0. Simple estimates based on observational evidence indicate that a search of this sensitivity begins to probe the possible region occupied by GRB orphan afterglows. Our observing protocol and image sensitivity result in a broad region of high detection efficiency for light curves to the bright and slowly varying side of a boundary running from [alpha_{t},m_{p}]=[-2.0,6.0] to [-0.3,13.2]. Within this region, the integrated rate of brief optical bursts is less than 1.1 imes 10^{-8} {
m s}^{-1} {
m deg}^{-2}. At $sim$22 times the observed GRB rate from BATSE, this suggests a limit on frac{ heta_{opt}}{ heta_{gamma}}lesssim 5 where heta_{opt} and heta_{gamma} are the optical and gamma-ray collimation angles, respectively. Several effects might explain the absence of optical bursts, and a search of the kind described here but more sensitive by about 4 magnitudes should offer a more definitive probe. | | Source: | arXiv, astro-ph/0205008 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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