Long gamma-ray bursts without visible supernovae: a case study of redshift estimators and alleged novel objects

Abstract

It has been argued that the observational limits on a supernova (SN) associated with GRB060614 convincingly exclude a SN akin to SN1998bw as its originator, and provide evidence for a new class of long-duration GRBs. We discuss this issue in the contexts of indirect 'redshift estimators' and of the fireball and cannonball models of GRBs. The latter explains the unusual properties of GRB060614: at its debated but favoured low redshift (0.125) they are predicted, as opposed to exceptional, if the associated core-collapse SN is of a recently discovered, very faint type. We take the occasion to discuss the 'association' between GRBs and SNe.

19 pages, 2 figures. To be published in ApJ

References in corpus (16)

• Swift detects a remarkable gamma-ray burst, GRB 060614, that introduces a new classification scheme
• An optical supernova associated with the X-ray flash XRF 060218
• No supernovae associated with two long-duration gamma ray bursts
• An enigmatic long-lasting gamma-ray burst not accompanied by a bright supernova
• The gamma-ray burst GRB060614 requires a novel explosive process
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift/XRT Data: III. Jet Break Candidates in X-ray and Optical Afterglow Lightcurves
• Evidence for chromatic X-ray light-curve breaks in Swift GRB afterglows and their theoretical implications
• An unusually brilliant transient in the galaxy Messier 85
• A comprehensive analysis of Swift/XRT data: I. Apparent spectral evolution of GRB X-ray tails
• Models for the Type Ic Hypernova SN 2003lw associated with GRB 031203
• A very faint core-collapse supernova in M85
• The nature of the outflow in gamma-ray bursts
• Correlation between the Peak Spectral Energy of Gamma-Ray Bursts and the Peak Luminosity of the Underlying Supernovae: Implication for the Nature of GRB-SN Connection
• Could GRB 060614 and its presumed host galaxy be a chance superposition?
• Testing the External Shock Model of Gamma-Ray Bursts using the Late-Time Simultaneous Optical and X-ray Afterglows
• On the origin of the correlations between Gamma-Ray Burst observables

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Formation of black hole and accretion disk in a massive high-entropy stellar core collapse
• The short GRB070707 afterglow and its very faint host galaxy
• Short Hard Gamma Ray Bursts And Their Afterglows
• SN 1999ga: a low-luminosity linear type II supernova?
• Long Gamma Ray Bursts Trace The Star Formation History