An Estimation of the Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Apparent Optical Brightness Distribution Function

Abstract

By using recent publicly available observational data obtained in conjunction with the NASA Swift gamma-ray burst mission and a novel data analysis technique, we have been able to make some rough estimates of the GRB afterglow apparent optical brightness distribution function. The results suggest that 71% of all burst afterglows have optical magnitudes with mR < 22.1 at 1000 seconds after the burst onset, the dimmest detected object in the data sample. There is a strong indication that the apparent optical magnitude distribution function peaks at mR ~ 19.5. Such estimates may prove useful in guiding future plans to improve GRB counterpart observation programs. The employed numerical techniques might find application in a variety of other data analysis problems in which the intrinsic distributions must be inferred from a heterogeneous sample.

15 pages including 2 tables and 7 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (8)

• Swift Identification of Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts
• "Anomalous" Optical GRB Afterglows are Common: Two z~4 Bursts, GRB 060206 and 060210
• Continuous optical monitoring during the prompt emission of GRB 060111B
• Multi-wavelength afterglow observations of the high redshift GRB 050730
• The bright optical flash from GRB 060117
• The Swift X-ray flaring afterglow of GRB 050607
• The variable X-ray light curve of GRB 050713A: the case of refreshed shocks
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Cited by in corpus (6)

• The Host Galaxies of Swift Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts: Observational Constraints on Highly Obscured and Very High-Redshift GRBs
• Taxonomy of GRB optical light-curves: identification of a salient class of early afterglows
• Early optical observations of GRBs by the TAROT telescopes: period 2001-2008
• GRB 090902B: afterglow observations and implications
• Perspectives on Gamma-Ray Burst Physics and Cosmology with Next Generation Facilities
• GRB 191016A: A Long Gamma-Ray Burst Detected by TESS