GRB 050509b: the elusive optical/nIR/mm afterglow of a short-duration GRB

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 439, Number 2, August IV 2005


Page(s)		L15 - L18
Section		Letters
DOI		http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200500147

A&A 439, L15-L18 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500147

Letter

GRB 050509b : the elusive optical/nIR/mm afterglow of a short-duration GRB

A. J. Castro-Tirado¹, A. de Ugarte Postigo¹, J. Gorosabel¹, T. Fathkullin², V. Sokolov², M. Bremer³, I. Márquez¹, A. J. Marín¹, S. Guziy^{1, 4}, M. Jelínek¹, P. Kubánek⁵, R. Hudec⁵, S. Vitek⁶, T. J. Mateo Sanguino⁷, A. Eigenbrod⁸, M. D. Pérez-Ramírez⁹, A. Sota¹, J. Masegosa¹, F. Prada¹ and M. Moles¹

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), PO Box 3.004, 18.080 Granada, Spain
e-mail: ajct@iaa.es
² Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences, Karanchai-Cherkessia, Nizniy-Arkhyz, 357147, Russia
³ Institute de Radioastronomie Milimetrique (IRAM), 300 rue de la Piscine, 38406 Saint-Martin-d'Hères, France
⁴ Nikolaev State University, Nikolskaya 24, 54.030 Nikolaev, Ukraine
⁵ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 25165 Ondrejov, Czech Republic
⁶ Fakulta electrotechnická, Czech Technical University, 121 35 Praha, Czech Republic
⁷ Dept. de Ing. Electrónica, Sistemas Informáticos y Automática, Univ. de Huelva, 21.819 Palos de la Frontera (Huelva), Spain
⁸ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Observatoire, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
⁹ Departamento de Física (EPS), Univ. de Jaén, Campus Las Lagunillas, 23071 Jaén, Spain

(Received 27 May 2005 / Accepted 26 June 2005)

Abstract
We present multiwavelength (optical/near infrared/millimetre) observations of a short duration gamma-ray burst detected by Swift ( GRB 050509b ) collected between 0 seconds and ~18.8 days after the event. No optical, near infrared or millimetre emission has been detected in spite of the well localised X-ray afterglow, confirming the elusiveness of the short duration events. We also discuss the possibility of the burst being located in a cluster of galaxies at z = 0.225 or beyond. In the former case, the spectral energy distribution of the neighbouring, potential host galaxy, favours a system harbouring an evolved dominant stellar population (age ~360 Myr), unlike most long duration GRB host galaxies observed so far, i.e. thus giving support to a compact binary merger origin. Any underlying supernova that could be associated with this particular event should have been at least 3 magnitudes fainter than the type Ib/c SN 1998bw and 2.3 mag fainter than a typical type Ia SN.

Key words: gamma rays: bursts -- techniques: photometric -- cosmology: observations

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