Observational constraints on the afterglow of GRB 020531

Abstract

We present the data acquired by the TAROT automated observatory on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Up to now, no convincing afterglow emission has been reported for this short/hard GRB at any wavelength, including X-ray and optical. The combination of our early limits, with other published data allows us to put severe constraints on the afterglow magnitude and light curve. The limiting magnitude is 18.5 in R band, 88 minutes after the GRB, and the decay slope power law index could be larger than 2.2.

4 pages, submitted to A&A (letter)

References in corpus (2)

• The Faint Optical Afterglow and Host Galaxy of GRB 020124: Implications for the Nature of Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Detection of an optical transient following the 13 March 2000 short/hard gamma-ray burst

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• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Integral Burst Alert System (IBAS)
• GRB 050509B: Constraints on short gamma-ray burst models
• An origin in the local Universe for some short gamma-ray bursts
• A Unified Model of Short and Long Gamma-Ray Bursts, X-Ray Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts, and X-Ray Flashes
• On the Spectral Lags of the Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Early optical observations of GRBs by the TAROT telescopes: period 2001-2008
• GRB 050509b: the elusive optical/nIR/mm afterglow of a short-duration GRB
• GRB 050911: a black hole - neutron star merger or a naked GRB
• Evidence for a long duration component in the prompt emission of short Gamma-Ray Bursts detected with BeppoSAX