Publications (25)
The use and calibration of read-out streaks to increase the dynamic range of the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope
M. J. Page, N. P. M. Kuin, A. A. Breeveld +12
The dynamic range of photon counting micro-channel-plate (MCP) intensified charged-coupled device (CCD) instruments such as the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) and the X…
Multi-epoch afterglow rebrightenings in GRB 250129A: Evidence for successive shock interactions
D. Akl, S. Antier, H. Koehn +105
Most long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) exhibit afterglows broadly consistent with external forward-shock emission, typically described by smooth broken power-law decays in the multiband…
The ultraluminous GRB 110918A
D. D. Frederiks, K. Hurley, D. S. Svinkin +29
GRB 110918A is the brightest long GRB detected by Konus-WIND during its 19 years of continuous observations and the most luminous GRB ever observed since the beginning of the cosmo…
Swift observations of V404 Cyg during the 2015 outburst: X-ray outflows from super-Eddington accretion
S. E. Motta, J. J. E. Kajava, C. Sánchez-Fernández +11
The black-hole binary V404 Cyg entered the outburst phase in June 2015 after 26 years of X-ray quiescence, and with its behaviour broke the outburst evolution pattern typical of mo…
X-shooter and ALMA spectroscopy of GRB 161023A - A study of metals and molecules in the line of sight towards a luminous GRB
A. de Ugarte Postigo, C. C. Thöne, J. Bolmer +45
Long gamma-ray bursts are produced during the dramatic deaths of massive stars with very short lifetimes, meaning that they explode close to the birth place of their progenitors. D…
Prompt emission of GRB 121217A from gamma-rays to the NIR
J. Elliott, H. -F. Yu, S. Schmidl +20
The mechanism that causes the prompt-emission episode of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is still widely debated despite there being thousands of prompt detections. The favoured internal s…
The ultra-long GRB 111209A - II. Prompt to afterglow and afterglow properties
G. Stratta, B. Gendre, J. L. Atteia +7
The "ultra-long" Gamma Ray Burst GRB 111209A at redshift z=0.677, is so far the longest GRB ever observed, with rest frame prompt emission duration of ~4 hours. In order to explain…
A systematically-selected sample of luminous, long-duration, ambiguous nuclear transients
P. Wiseman, R. D. Williams, I. Arcavi +12
We present a search for luminous, long-duration ambiguous nuclear transients (ANTs) similar to the unprecedented discovery of the extreme, ambiguous event AT2021lwx with a \,…
The Optical Luminosity-Time Correlation for More Than 100 Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
M. G. Dainotti, S. Livermore, D. A. Kann +7
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are fascinating events due to their panchromatic nature. Their afterglow emission is observed from sub-TeV energies to radio wavelengths. We investigate GRB…
The mysterious optical afterglow spectrum of GRB140506A at z=0.889
J. P. U. Fynbo, T. Krühler, K. Leighly +40
Context. Gamma-ray burst (GRBs) afterglows probe sightlines to star-forming regions in distant star-forming galaxies. Here we present a study of the peculiar afterglow spectrum of…
GRB100814A as a member of the growing set of bursts with sudden optical rebrightening
Massimiliano De Pasquale, N. P. Kuin, S. Oates +22
We present the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical and radio data for GRB100814A. At the end of the slow decline phase of the X-ray and optical afterglow, a sudden and prominent rebrightenin…
GRB 130427A: a Nearby Ordinary Monster
A. Maselli, A. Melandri, L. Nava +63
Long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are an extremely rare outcome of the collapse of massive stars, and are typically found in the distant Universe. Because of its intrinsic lumi…
The diversity of progenitors and emission mechanisms for ultra-long bursts
B. Gendre, G. Stratta, J. L. Atteia +10
GRB 111209A is the longest ever recorded burst. This burst was detected by Swift and Konus-Wind, and we obtained TOO time from XMM-Newton as well as prompt data from TAROT. We made…
Transition from Fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated Outflow in Three-Episode GRB 160625B
B. -B. Zhang, B. Zhang, A. J. Castro-Tirado +51
The ejecta composition is an open question in gamma-ray bursts (GRB) physics. Some GRBs possess a quasi-thermal spectral component in the time-resolved spectral analysis, suggestin…
Astrophysics of "extreme" solar-like stars
M. D. Caballero-Garcia, A. J. Castro-Tirado, A. Claret +8
Only a few red dwarf flaring stars in the solar neighbourhood have undergone exceptional events called superflares. They have been detected with high-energy satellites (i.e. Swift)…
The high-redshift gamma-ray burst GRB140515A
A. Melandri, M. G. Bernardini, P. D'Avanzo +22
High-redshift gamma-ray bursts have several advantages for the study of the distant universe, providing unique information about the structure and properties of the galaxies in whi…
Paper II: Calibration of the Swift ultraviolet/optical telescope
A. A. Breeveld, P. A. Curran, E. A. Hoversten +32
The Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) is one of three instruments onboard the Swift observatory. The photometric calibration has been published, and this paper follows up with d…
GRB 161219B-SN 2016jca: a powerful stellar collapse
C. Ashall, P. A. Mazzali, E. Pian +26
We report observations and analysis of the nearby gamma-ray burst GRB\,161219B (redshift ) and the associated Type Ic supernova (SN) 2016jca. GRB\,161219B had an isotropi…
The optical rebrightening of GRB100814A: an interplay of forward and reverse shocks?
Massimiliano De Pasquale, N. P. M. Kuin, S. Oates +36
We present a wide dataset of gamma-ray, X-ray, UVOIR, and radio observations of the Swift GRB100814A. At the end of the slow decline phase of the X-ray and optical afterglow, this…
The Swift-UVOT ultraviolet and visible grism calibration
N. P. M. Kuin, W. Landsman, A. A. Breeveld +16
We present the calibration of the Swift UVOT grisms, of which there are two, providing low-resolution field spectroscopy in the ultraviolet and optical bands respectively. The UV g…
Simultaneous optical/gamma-ray observations of GRB 121217's prompt emission
J. Elliott, H. -F. Yu, S. Schmidl +20
Since the advent of the Swift satellite it has been possible to obtain precise localisations of GRB positions of sub-arcsec accuracy within seconds, facilitating ground-based robot…
Jet breaks at the end of the slow decline phase of Swift GRB lightcurves
M. De Pasquale, P. Evans, S. Oates +9
The Swift mission has discovered an intriguing feature of Gamma-Ray Burst (GRBs) afterglows, a phase of shallow decline of the flux in the X-ray and optical lightcurves. This behav…
NuSTAR Observations of GRB130427A establish a single component synchrotron afterglow origin for the late optical to multi-GeV emission
C. Kouveliotou, J. Granot, J. L. Racusin +17
GRB 130427A occurred in a relatively nearby galaxy; its prompt emission had the largest GRB fluence ever recorded. The afterglow of GRB 130427A was bright enough for the Nuclear Sp…
Spectroscopy of the short-hard GRB 130603B: The host galaxy and environment of a compact object merger
A. de Ugarte Postigo, C. C. Thoene, A. Rowlinson +40
Short duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are thought to be related to the violent merger of compact objects, such as neutron stars or black holes, which makes them promising sources…
The Optical Two and Three-Dimensional Fundamental Plane Correlations for Nearly 180 Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows with Swift/UVOT, RATIR, and the SUBARU Telescope
Maria Giovanna Dainotti, Sam Young, L. Li +21
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are fascinating events due to their panchromatic nature. We study optical plateaus in GRB afterglows via an extended search into archival data. We comprehen…