Reichart, Daniel E. and Price, Paul A. (2003) Evidence for Circumburst Extinction of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Dark Optical Afterglows and Evidence for a Molecular Cloud Origin of Gamma-Ray Bursts. In: Gamma-ray burst and afterglow astronomy 2001. AIP Conference Proceedings. No.662. American Institute of Physics , Melville, NY, pp. 403-410. ISBN 0-7354-0122-5. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20111025-111914069
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Abstract
First, we show that the gamma-ray bursts with dark optical afterglows (DOAs) cannot be explained by a failure to image deeply enough quickly enough, and argue that circumburst extinction is the most likely solution. If so, many DOAs will be “revived” with rapid follow up and NIR searches in the HETE-2 and Swift eras. Next, we consider the effects of dust sublimation and fragmentation, and show that DOAs occur in clouds of size R ≳ 10L^(1/2)_49 pc and mass M ≳ 3x10^5L_(49) M_⊙, where L is the luminosity of the optical flash. Stability considerations show that such clouds cannot be diffuse, but must be molecular. Consequently, we compute the expected column density distribution of bursts that occur in Galactic-like molecular clouds, and show that the column density measurements from X-ray spectra of afterglows, DOAs and otherwise, satisfy this expectation in the source frame.
Item Type: | Book Section | |||||||||
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Additional Information: | © 2003 American Institute of Physics. Issue Date: 14 April 2003. | |||||||||
Subject Keywords: | gamma-ray sources (astronomical), interstellar molecular clouds, afterglows, X-ray spectra, cosmic dust | |||||||||
Series Name: | AIP Conference Proceedings | |||||||||
Issue or Number: | 662 | |||||||||
Classification Code: | PACS: 98.70.Rz | |||||||||
DOI: | 10.1063/1.1579388 | |||||||||
Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:20111025-111914069 | |||||||||
Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20111025-111914069 | |||||||||
Official Citation: | Evidence for Circumburst Extinction of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Dark Optical Afterglows and Evidence for a Molecular Cloud Origin of Gamma-Ray Bursts Daniel E. Reichart and Paul A. Price, AIP Conf. Proc. 662, 403 (2003), DOI:10.1063/1.1579388 | |||||||||
Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. | |||||||||
ID Code: | 27408 | |||||||||
Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS | |||||||||
Deposited By: | Tony Diaz | |||||||||
Deposited On: | 26 Oct 2011 16:19 | |||||||||
Last Modified: | 09 Nov 2021 16:48 |
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