Post-Launch Analysis of Swift's Gamma-Ray Burst Detection Sensitivity

Abstract

The dependence of Swift's detection sensitivity on a burst's temporal and spectral properties shapes the detected burst population. Using simplified models of the detector hardware and the burst trigger system I find that Swift is more sensitive to long, soft bursts than CGRO's BATSE, a reference detector because of the large burst database it accumulated. Thus Swift has increased sensitivity in the parameter space region into which time dilation and spectral redshifting shift high redshift bursts.

20 pages, 8 figures, Ap. J. in press

References in corpus (10)

• The Swift X-ray Telescope
• The Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope
• The Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on the Swift MIDEX Mission
• BATSE Observations of Gamma-Ray Burst Spectra. II. Peak Energy Evolution in Bright, Long Bursts -
• The Afterglows, Redshifts, and Properties of Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts
• A Gamma-Ray Burst Trigger Toolkit
• Distributions of Peak Flux and Duration for Gamma-Ray Bursts
• EXIST: All-Sky Hard X-ray Imaging and Spectral-Temporal Survey for Black Holes
• Setting the Triggering Threshold on Swift
• The BAT-Swift Science Software

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• The Cosmic Rate, Luminosity Function and Intrinsic Correlations of Long GRBs
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• The redshift distribution of SWIFT Gamma-Ray Bursts: evidence for evolution
• The Swift short gamma-ray burst rate density: implications for binary neutron star merger rates
• An Unexpectedly Swift Rise in the Gamma-ray Burst Rate
• The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxy Legacy Survey - I. Sample Selection and Redshift Distribution
• The Epeak-Eiso plane of long Gamma Ray Bursts and selection effects
• On the Redshift Distribution of Gamma Ray Bursts in the Swift Era
• GRB 090426: The Environment of a Rest-Frame 0.35-second Gamma-Ray Burst at Redshift z=2.609
• Probing the Cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst Rate with Trigger Simulations of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope
• The X-shooter GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB)
• Do long-duration GRBs follow star formation?
• Global Properties of X-Ray Flashes and X-Ray-Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed by Swift
• Generalized Tests for Selection Effects in GRB High-Energy Correlations
• Epeak estimator for Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope
• Luminosity function and jet structure of Gamma Ray Bursts
• Are all short-hard gamma-ray bursts produced from mergers of compact stellar objects?
• Testing the Epeak - Eiso relation for GRBs detected by Swift and Suzaku-WAM
• Gamma-ray burst rate: high-redshift excess and its possible origins
• Short vs. Long Gamma-Ray Bursts: A Comprehensive Study of Energetics and Prompt Gamma-Ray Correlations
• Selection effects in Gamma Ray Bursts correlations: consequences on the ratio between GRB and star formation rates
• A Tidal Flare Candidate in Abell 1795
• An analysis of the durations of Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Cosmological Tests Using GRBs, the Star Formation Rate and Possible Abundance Evolution
• How common are long Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Local Universe?
• Simulations on High-z Long Gamma-Ray Burst Rate
• Statistical Study of Observed and Intrinsic Durations among BATSE and Swift/BAT GRBs
• A comparison of the gamma-ray bursts detected by BATSE and Swift
• Selection effects shaping the Gamma Ray Burst redshift distributions
• Selection Effects on the Observed Redshift Dependence of GRB Jet Opening Angles
• On The Origin Of The Highest Redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Estimates for Lorentz factors of gamma-ray bursts from early optical afterglow observations
• A common stochastic process rules gamma-ray burst prompt emission and X-ray flares
• Low Lorentz Factor Jets from Compact Stellar Mergers - Candidate Electromagnetic Counterparts to Gravitational Wave Sources
• Revisiting coincidence rate between Gravitational Wave detection and short Gamma-Ray Burst for the Advanced and third generation
• GRB Fireball Physics: Prompt and Early Emission
• Do the Fermi Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor and Swift Burst Alert Telescope see the Same Short Gamma-Ray Bursts?
• AstroSat CZT Imager observations of GRB 151006A: timing, spectroscopy, and polarisation study
• Open issues with the gamma-ray burst redshift distribution
• Revisiting the luminosity and redshift distributions of long gamma-ray bursts
• Where are the missing gamma ray burst redshifts?
• A Multivariate Fit Luminosity Function and World Model for Long GRBs
• Cosmic Evolution of Long Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity
• Correlation between Peak Energy and Peak Luminosity in Short Gamma-Ray Bursts
• A Comparative Study of Luminosity Functions and Event Rate Densities of Long GRBs with Non-parametric Method
• Short gamma-ray bursts from SGR giant flares and neutron star mergers: two populations are better than one
• Long Gamma-Ray Bursts and Their Host Galaxies at High Redshift
• Intensity Distribution and Luminosity Function of the Swift Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Two Dimensional Clustering of Gamma-Ray Bursts using durations and hardness
• Nonthermal Synchrotron Radiation from Gamma Ray Burst External Shocks and the X-ray Flares Observed with Swift
• Gamma-ray burst cosmology: Hubble diagram and star formation history
• Transient Survey Rates for Orphan Afterglows from Compact Merger Jets
• On the nature of X-Ray Flashes in the SWIFT era
• Research on the redshift evolution of luminosity function and selection effect of GRBs
• EXIST's Gamma-Ray Burst Sensitivity
• Probing the low-luminosity GRB population with new generation satellite detectors
• Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Functions Based On a Newly Discovered Correlation Between Peak Spectral Energy and V/V_max
• Revisiting the Formation Rate and the Redshift Distribution of LGRBs
• Using Swift observations of prompt and afterglow emission to classify GRBs
• Long gamma-ray burst light curves as the result of a common stochastic pulse-avalanche process
• Luminosity Function of collapsar Gamma-Ray Bursts:the Progenitor of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts Is Not Singular
• Wide Angle X-ray Sky Monitoring for Corroborating non-Electromagnetic Cosmic Transients
• An advanced pulse-avalanche stochastic model of long gamma-ray burst light curves
• The redshift evolution of the luminosity function of type II GRBs
• Explosive and radio-selected Transients: Transient Astronomy with SKA and its Precursors
• The Swift short gamma-ray burst rate density: prospects for detecting binary neutron star mergers by aLIGO
• The spectral catalogue of INTEGRAL gamma-ray bursts: results of the joint IBIS/SPI spectral analysis
• Soft gamma repeaters activity in time