RAPTOR observations of the early optical afterglow from GRB 050319

Abstract

The RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response (RAPTOR) system at Los Alamos National Laboratory observed GRB 050319 starting 25.4 seconds after gamma-ray emission triggered the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on-board the Swift satellite. Our well sampled light curve of the early optical afterglow is composed of 32 points (derived from 70 exposures) that measure the flux decay during the first hour after the GRB. The GRB 050319 light curve measured by RAPTOR can be described as a relatively gradual flux decline (power-law index alpha = -0.37) with a transition, at about 400 s after the GRB, to a faster flux decay (alpha = -0.91). The addition of other available measurements to the RAPTOR light curve suggests that another emission component emerged after 10^4 s. We hypothesize that the early afterglow emission is powered by extended energy injection or delayed reverse shock emission followed by the emergence of forward shock emission.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJ Letters. To see a short movie of fading GRB 050319 go to http://www.raptor.lanl.gov/images/GRB050319/grb050319_movie_annotated.gif

References in corpus (15)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Spectra and Light Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• Optical and Long Wavelength Afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Theories of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst
• Predictions for The Very Early Afterglow and The Optical Flash
• GRB 990123: Reverse and Internal Shock Flashes and Late Afterglow
• A Link between Prompt Optical and Prompt Gamma-Ray Emission in Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System
• Discovery of Early Optical Emission from GRB 021211
• The Early Light Curve of the Optical Afterglow of GRB 021211
• A contemporaneous infrared flash from a long gamma-ray burst: an echo from the central engine
• Analysis of Two Scenarios for the Early Optical Emission of the GRB Afterglows 990123 and 021211
• The RAPTOR Experiment: A System for Monitoring the Optical Sky in Real Time
• The Early Optical Afterglow of GRB 030418 and Progenitor Mass Loss

Cited by in corpus (33)

• The Afterglows of Swift-era Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Comparing pre-Swift and Swift era Long/Soft (Type II) GRB Optical Afterglows
• Panchromatic study of GRB 060124: from precursor to afterglow
• GRB efficiency and Possible Physical Processes Shaping the Early Afterglow
• Robust Limits on Lorentz Violation from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Evidence for chromatic X-ray light-curve breaks in Swift GRB afterglows and their theoretical implications
• Energy input and response from prompt and early optical afterglow emission in gamma-ray bursts
• Dust and Metal Column Densities in Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies
• Correlations of Prompt and Afterglow Emission in Swift Long and Short Gamma Ray Bursts
• Looking Into the Fireball: ROTSE-III and Swift Observations of Early GRB Afterglows
• Taxonomy of GRB optical light-curves: identification of a salient class of early afterglows
• Multi-Wavelength Observations of GRB 050820A: An Exceptionally Energetic Event Followed from Start to Finish
• The Dust Extinction Curves of Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies
• A unifying view of Gamma Ray Burst Afterglows
• The clustering of the luminosities of optical afterglows of long Gamma Ray Bursts
• Phenomenology of Reverse-Shock Emission in the Optical Afterglows of Gamma Ray Bursts
• Gamma-ray burst optical light-curve zoo: comparison with X-ray observations
• Swift XRT Observations of the Afterglow of GRB 050319
• Automated rapid follow-up of Swift GRBs with AMI-LA
• Early-Time Observations of the GRB 050319 Optical Transient
• A Correlated Study of Optical and X-ray Afterglows of GRBs
• Multi-color Shallow Decay and Chromatic Breaks in the GRB 050319 Optical Afterglow
• Early re-brightening of the afterglow of GRB 050525a
• When Do Internal Shocks End and External Shocks Begin? Early-Time Broadband Modelling of GRB 051111
• GRB 090727 and gamma-ray bursts with early time optical emission
• The diverse broad-band light-curves of Swift GRBs reproduced with the cannonball model
• Linking optical and infrared observations with gravitational wave sources through variability
• Observations of the Optical Afterglow of GRB 050319 : Wind to ISM transition in view
• Prompt optical observations of GRB050319 with the Swift UVOT
• Optical observations of GRB 060124 afterglow: A case for an injection break
• Very early multi-color observations of the plateau phase of GRB 041006 afterglow
• Observational constraints on the external shock prior emission hypothesis of GRBs
• A late, infrared flash from the afterglow of GRB 050319
• Delayed Onset and Fast Rise of Prompt Optical-UV Emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts in Molecular Clouds