The Dark Side of ROTSE-III Prompt GRB Observations

Abstract

We present several cases of optical observations during gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which resulted in prompt limits but no detection of optical emission. These limits constrain the prompt optical flux densities and the optical brightness relative to the gamma-ray emission. The derived constraints fall within the range of properties observed in GRBs with prompt optical detections, though at the faint end of optical/gamma flux ratios. The presently accessible prompt optical limits do not require a different set of intrinsic or environmental GRB properties, relative to the events with prompt optical detections.

ApJ accepted. 20 pages in draft manuscript form, which includes 6 pages of tables and 2 figures

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Cited by in corpus (10)

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• Prompt optical emission from residual collisions in GRB outflows
• Swift captures the spectrally evolving prompt emission of GRB 070616
• An efficient method for fitting radiation-mediated shocks to gamma-ray burst data: The Kompaneets RMS approximation
• X-ray Afterglows from the Gamma-Ray Burst "Large(r)-Angle" Emission
• An energy-conserving dynamical model of GRB afterglows from magnetized forward and reverse shocks
• The Optical Luminosity Function of Gamma-ray Bursts deduced from ROTSE-III Observations
• Detecting the early optical flashes of gamma-ray bursts with small telescope arrays