2006/11/17 by E. Rol, J. P. Osborne, K. L. Page +18
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11224.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.374:1078-1084,2007 · Accepted to MNRAS. 8 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2006/11/17 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on a comprehensive set of observations of gamma-ray burst 050716, detected by the Swift satellite and subsequently followed-up rapidly in X-ray, optical and near-infrared (NIR) wavebands. The prompt emission is typical of long-duration bursts, with two peaks in a time interval of T90= 68 s (15–350 keV). The prompt emission continues at lower flux levels in the X-ray band, where several smaller flares can be seen on the top of a decaying light curve that exhibits an apparent break around 220 s post-trigger. This temporal break is roughly coincident with a spectral break. The latter can be related to the extrapolated evolution of the break energy in the prompt γ-ray emission, and is possibly the manifestation of the peak flux break frequency of the internal shock passing through the observing band. A possible 3σ change in the X-ray absorption column is also seen during this time. The late-time afterglow behaviour is relatively standard, with an electron distribution power-law index of p= 2; there is no notable temporal break out to at least 10 d. The broad-band optical/NIR to X-ray spectrum indicates a redshift of z≳ 2 for this burst, with a host-galaxy extinction value of EB−V≈ 0.7 that prefers a small magellanic cloud (SMC)-like extinction curve.