2007/02/12 by D. Watson, J. P. U. Fynbo, C. C. Thöne +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1098/rsta.2006.1994
published as Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc.Lond.A365:1269-1275,2007 · Proceedings from the Royal Society meeting on GRBs Sept. 2006
openalex publication_date 2007/02/12 · arxiv created 2007/03/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2020/11/23 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
There is strong evidence that long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are produced during the collapse of a massive star. In the standard version of the collapsar model, a broad-lined and luminous Type Ic core-collapse supernova (SN) accompanies the GRB. This association has been confirmed in observations of several nearby GRBs. Recent observations show that some long-duration GRBs are different. No SN emission accompanied the long-duration GRBs 060505 and 060614 down to limits fainter than any known Type Ic SN and hundreds of times fainter than the archetypal SN 1998bw that accompanied GRB 980425. Multi-band observations of the early afterglows, as well as spectroscopy of the host galaxies, exclude the possibility of significant dust obscuration. Furthermore, the bursts originated in star-forming galaxies, and in the case of GRB 060505, the burst was localized to a compact star-forming knot in a spiral arm of its host galaxy. We find that the properties of the host galaxies, the long duration of the bursts and, in the case of GRB 060505, the location of the burst within its host, all imply a massive stellar origin. The absence of an SN to such deep limits therefore suggests a new phenomenological type of massive stellar death.