5,236 research outputs found
VLT identification of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 000131 at z=4.50
We report the discovery of the gamma-ray burst GRB 000131 and its optical
afterglow. The optical identification was made with the VLT 84 hours after the
burst following a BATSE detection and an Inter Planetary Network localization.
GRB 000131 was a bright, long-duration GRB, with an apparent precursor signal
62 s prior to trigger. The afterglow was detected in ESO VLT, NTT, and DK1.54m
follow-up observations. Broad-band and spectroscopic observations of the
spectral energy distribution reveals a sharp break at optical wavelengths which
is interpreted as a Ly-alpha absorption edge at 6700 A. This places GRB 000131
at a redshift of 4.500 +/- 0.015. The inferred isotropic energy release in
gamma rays alone was approximately 10^54 erg (depending on the assumed
cosmology). The rapid power-law decay of the afterglow (index alpha=2.25,
similar to bursts with a prior break in the lightcurve), however, indicates
collimated outflow, which relaxes the energy requirements by a factor of < 200.
The afterglow of GRB 000131 is the first to be identified with an 8-m class
telescope.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, accepted to A&A Letter
The Properties of Field Elliptical Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift. I: Empirical Scaling Laws
We present measurements of the Fundamental Plane (FP) parameters (the
effective radius, the mean effective surface brightness, and the central
velocity dispersion) of six field elliptical galaxies at intermediate redshift.
The imaging is taken from the Medium Deep Survey of the Hubble Space Telescope,
while the kinematical data are obtained from long-slit spectroscopy using the
3.6-m ESO telescope. The Fundamental Plane appears well defined in the field
even at redshift 0.3. The data show a shift in the FP zero point with
respect to the local relation, possibly indicating modest evolution, consistent
with the result found for intermediate redshift cluster samples. The FP slopes
derived for our field data, plus other cluster ellipticals at intermediate
redshift taken from the literature, differ from the local ones, but are still
consistent with the interpretation of the FP as a result of homology, of the
virial theorem and of the existence of a relation between luminosity and mass,
. We also derive the surface brightness vs. effective
radius relation for nine galaxies with redshift up to , and data
from the literature; the evolution that can be inferred is consistent with what
is found using the FP.Comment: 17 pages, including 9 figures, MNRAS, accepte
Comment on "Giant absorption cross section of ultracold neutrons in Gadolinium"
Rauch et al (PRL 83, 4955, 1999) have compared their measurements of the Gd
cross section for Ultra-cold neutrons with an exptrapolation of the cross
section for thermal neutrons and interpreted the discrepancy in terms of
coherence properties of the neutron. We show the extrapolation used is based on
a misunderstanding and that coherence properties play no role in absorption.Comment: 2 pages, 1 postscript figure, comment on Rauch et al, PRL 83,4955
(1999
Logics for Unranked Trees: An Overview
Labeled unranked trees are used as a model of XML documents, and logical
languages for them have been studied actively over the past several years. Such
logics have different purposes: some are better suited for extracting data,
some for expressing navigational properties, and some make it easy to relate
complex properties of trees to the existence of tree automata for those
properties. Furthermore, logics differ significantly in their model-checking
properties, their automata models, and their behavior on ordered and unordered
trees. In this paper we present a survey of logics for unranked trees
The bright Gamma-Ray Burst of February 10, 2000: a case study of an optically dark GRB
The gamma-ray burst GRB000210 had the highest gamma-ray peak flux of any
event localized by BeppoSAX as yet but it did not have a detected optical
afterglow. It is therefore one of the events recently classified as dark GRBs
or GHOST (GRB Hiding Optical Source Transient), whose origin is still unclear.
Chandra observations allowed us to localize this GRB within ~1" and a radio
transient was detected with the VLA. We identify the likely (P=0.01) host
galaxy of this burst at z=0.846. The X-ray spectrum of the afterglow shows
intrinsic absorption N_H=5x10**21 cm-2. The amount of dust needed to absorb the
optical flux of this object is consistent with the above HI column density,
given a dust-to-gas ratio similar to that of our Galaxy. We do not find
evidence for a partially ionized absorber expected if the absorption takes
place in a Giant Molecular Cloud. We therefore conclude that either the gas is
local to the GRB, but is condensed in small-scale high-density (n>~10**9 cm-3)
clouds, or that the GRB is located in a dusty, gas-rich region of the galaxy.
Finally, if GRB000210 lies at z>5, its X-ray absorbing medium would have to be
substantially different from that observed in GRBs with optical afterglows.Comment: 29 pages, 7 fig.s, some revisions, ApJ, in pres
- âŠ