In Search of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Counterparts with the Zwicky Transient Facility
Ahumada, Tomás; Anand, Shreya; Coughlin, Michael W; Andreoni, Igor; Kool, Erik C; Kumar, Harsh; Reusch, Simeon; Sagués-Carracedo, Ana; Stein, Robert; Cenko, Bradley S; Kasliwal, Mansi M; Singer, Leo P; Dunwoody, Rachel; Mangan, Joseph; Bhalerao, Varun; Bulla, Mattia; Burns, Eric; Graham, Matthew J; Kaplan, David L; Perley, Daniel; Almualla, Mouza; Bloom, Joshua S; Cunningham, Virginia; De, Kishalay; Gatkine, Pradip; Ho, Anna Y. Q; Karambelkar, Viraj; Kong, Albert K. H; Yao, Yuhan; Anupama, G. C; Barway, Sudhanshu; Ghosh, Shaon; Itoh, Ryosuke; McBreen, Sheila; Bellm, Eric C; Fremling, Christoffer; Laher, Russ R; Mahabal, Ashish A; Riddle, Reed L; Rosnet, Philippe; Rusholme, Ben; Smith, Roger; Sollerman, Jesper; Bissaldi, Elisabetta; Fletcher, Corinne; Hamburg, Rachel; Mailyan, Bagrat; Malacaria, Christian; Roberts, Oliver
Date:
2022-06-10
Abstract:
The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) triggers on-board in response to ∼40 short gamma-ray bursts
(SGRBs) per year; however, their large localization regions have made the search for optical counterparts a
challenging endeavour. We have developed and executed an extensive program with the wide field of view of the
Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) camera, mounted on the Palomar 48 inch Oschin telescope (P48), to perform target-of-opportunity (ToO) observations on 10 Fermi-GBM SGRBs during 2018 and 2020–2021. Bridging the
large sky areas with small field-of-view optical telescopes in order to track the evolution of potential candidates, we
look for the elusive SGRB afterglows and kilonovae (KNe) associated with these high-energy events. No
counterpart has yet been found, even though more than 10 ground-based telescopes, part of the Global Relay of
Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH) network, have taken part in these efforts. The candidate
selection procedure and the follow-up strategy have shown that ZTF is an efficient instrument for searching for
poorly localized SGRBs, retrieving a reasonable number of candidates to follow up and showing promising
capabilities as the community approaches the multi-messenger era. Based on the median limiting magnitude of
ZTF, our searches would have been able to retrieve a GW170817-like event up to ∼200 Mpc and SGRB
afterglows to z = 0.16 or 0.4, depending on the assumed underlying energy model. Future ToOs will expand the
horizon to z = 0.2 and 0.7, respectively.
Description:
Open Access
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