GRB 080503: A very early blue kilonova and an adjacent non-thermal radiation component
arXiv:2212.08555 · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acac9b
Abstract
The temporal behavior of the very dim optical afterglow of GRB 080503 is at odds with the regular forward shock afterglow model and a sole kilonova component responsible for optical emission has been speculated in some literature. Here we analyze the optical afterglow data available in archive and construct time-resolved spectra. The significant detection by Keck-I in {\it G/R} bands at day, which has not been reported before, as well as the simultaneous Gemini-North {\it r} band measurement, are in favor of a power-law spectrum that is well consistent with the optical to X-ray spectrum measured at day. However, for day, the spectra are thermal-like and a straightforward interpretation is a kilonova emission from a neutron star merger, making it, possibly, the first detection of a very early kilonova signal at day. A non-thermal nature of optical emission at late times ( day), anyhow, can not be ruled out because of the large uncertainty of the {\it g}-band data. We also propose to classify the neutron star merger induced optical transients, according to the temporal behaviors of the kilonova and the non-thermal afterglow emission, into four types. GRB 080503 would then represent the first observation of a sub-group of neutron star merger driven optical transients (i.e., Type IV) consisting of an early blue kilonova and an adjacent non-thermal afterglow radiation.
arXiv commentAccepted to ApJ. 15 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables
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