The search for the host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst GRB 000214

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Apartado de Correos, 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain e-mail: gss@iaa.es
² Nikolaev State University, Nikolska 24, 54030 Nikolaev, Ukraine
³ Universidad de Jaén, Departamento de Física (EPS), Virgen de la Cabeza, 2, 23071 Jaén, Spain
⁴ Astronomical Observatory, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 København Ø , Denmark
⁵ Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
⁶ Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, CNR, Sezione di Bologna, via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
⁷ University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Received: 23 November 2004
Accepted: 3 June 2005

Abstract

We present UBVRI-band observations taken ~300 days after the BeppoSAX γ-ray burst GRB 000214. This GRB did not show a detectable optical afterglow; however, due to the localization of a previously unknown, fading X-ray source at a tentative redshift in the range 0.37–0.47, we searched with the ESO 3.6 m telescope for objects with photometric redshifts consistent with the mentioned X-ray redshift range. We report four host galaxy candidates, which might be the subject of future spectroscopic observations, in order to confirm their redshifts.