AN r-PROCESS KILONOVA ASSOCIATED WITH THE SHORT-HARD GRB 130603B

By E. Berger, W. Fong, Ryan Chornock. 2013

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We present ground-based optical and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) optical and near-IR observations of the short-hard GRB 130603B at z = 0.356, which demonstrate the presence of excess near-IR emission matching the expected brightness and color of an r-process powered transient (a “kilonova”). The early afterglow fades rapidly with α ≲ −2.6 at t ≈ 8–32 hr post-burst and has a spectral index of β ≈ −1.5 (Fν∝tανβ), leading to an expected near-IR brightness at the time of the first HST observation of mF160W(t = 9.4 days) ≳ 29.3 AB mag. Instead, the detected source has mF160W = 25.8 ± 0.2 AB mag, corresponding to a rest-frame absolute magnitude of MJ ≈ −15.2 mag. The upper limit in the HST optical observations is mF606W ≳ 27.7 AB mag (3σ), indicating an unusually red color of V − H ≳ 1.9 mag. Comparing the observed near-IR luminosity to theoretical models of kilonovae produced by ejecta from the merger of an NS–NS or NS–BH binary, we infer an ejecta mass of Mej ≈ 0.03–0.08 M☉ for vej ≈ 0.1–0.3c. The inferred mass matches the expectations from numerical merger simulations. The presence of a kilonova provides the strongest evidence to date that short GRBs are produced by compact object mergers, and provides initial insight on the ejected mass and the primary role that compact object merger may play in the r-process. Equally important, it demonstrates that gravitational wave sources detected by Advanced LIGO/Virgo will be accompanied by optical/near-IR counterparts with unusually red colors, detectable by existing and upcoming large wide-field facilities (e.g., Pan-STARRS, DECam, Subaru, LSST).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/14afca9198287da4ec7d8c54947948efdec08d12

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Citations in the corpus

The Emergence of a Lanthanide-rich Kilonova Following the Merger of Two Neutron Stars (2017, background): “To date, the most compelling evidence in support of this scenario was provided by the observation of excess infrared light (rest frame 1.2l ~ μm) at the location of a short-GRB about a week (in the rest frame) after the burst occurred (GRB 130603B; Tanvir et al. 2013; Berger et al. 2013).”
THE FORMATION OF ECCENTRIC COMPACT BINARY INSPIRALS AND THE ROLE OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EMISSION IN BINARY–SINGLE STELLAR ENCOUNTERS (2013, background): “…et al. 2012; Faber & Rasio 2012; Metzger & Berger 2012; Lehner et al. 2012; Kelley et al. 2013; Nissanke et al. 2013; Palenzuela et al. 2013a,b; Berger et al. 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013; Bartos et al. 2013), in addition to possible insights into the origin of r-process nucleosynthetic elements…”
Unequal mass binary neutron star mergers and multimessenger signals (2016, background): “The recent observation of an infrared transient associated associated with the SGRB 130603B [24, 25] has demonstrated that such a tantalizing prospect is within reach.”
RADIOACTIVITY AND THERMALIZATION IN THE EJECTA OF COMPACT OBJECT MERGERS AND THEIR IMPACT ON KILONOVA LIGHT CURVES (2016, background): “An excess near-infrared (NIR) flux discovered in the afterglow of the short γ-ray burst GRB 130603B has been widely interpreted as a kilonova (Berger et al. 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013).”
The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, result): “Recently, a bright nearIR emission component was detected from the short-GRB 130603B with HST [802,803], which is consistent with the recent prediction of a ‘‘kilonova’’ – luminosity being∼103 times the luminosity of a typical nova [801].”
NEUTRINO-DRIVEN WINDS IN THE AFTERMATH OF A NEUTRON STAR MERGER: NUCLEOSYNTHESIS AND ELECTROMAGNETIC TRANSIENTS (2015, background): “The idea that compact binary mergers could be the sources of the heaviest r-process elements has recently received strong support from an observed near-infrared transient in the aftermath of a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) (Tanvir et al. 2013; Berger et al. 2013; Yang et al. 2015).”
PRODUCTION OF ALL THE r-PROCESS NUCLIDES IN THE DYNAMICAL EJECTA OF NEUTRON STAR MERGERS (2014, background): “The possible identification of a kilonova associated with the Swift GRB 130603B (Berger et al. 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013) also indicates that CBMs are the progenitors of short-duration gamma-ray bursts and the sources of r-process elements (Hotokezaka et al. 2013b; Tanaka et al. 2014).”
A DECADE OF SHORT-DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURST BROADBAND AFTERGLOWS: ENERGETICS, CIRCUMBURST DENSITIES, AND JET OPENING ANGLES (2015, methodology): “2012; Berger et al. 2013; Sakamoto et al. 2013) andHubble Space Telescope(HST) observations (Fong et al. 2010; Fong & Berger 2013).”
The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/Virgo GW170817. III. Optical and UV Spectra of a Blue Kilonova from Fast Polar Ejecta (2017, background): “A kilonova was likely detected in near-IR imaging following the short GRB 130603B (Berger et al. 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013).”
Double neutron stars: merger rates revisited (2017, background): “Be- MNRAS 000, 1–24 (2017) sides the one associated with the first detection of gravitational waves from merging DNS, so far two observational candidates for kilonovae were reported (Berger et al. 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013; Jin et al. 2016).”
Impact of ejecta morphology and composition on the electromagnetic signatures of neutron star mergers (2017, background): “Can our models explain the observed nIR excess in GRB130603B, which was reported in Tanvir et al. (2013) and de Ugarte Postigo et al. (2014) (also Berger et al. 2013)?”
Formation of Double Neutron Star Systems (2017, background): “These short GRBs (sGRBs) are possibly followed by a socalled “kilonova” or “macronova” (Li & Paczyński 1998; Kulkarni 2005; Metzger et al. 2010; Barnes & Kasen 2013; Tanaka & Hotokezaka 2013; Tanvir et al. 2013; Berger et al. 2013; Fernández & Metzger 2015; Metzger 2016; Gottlieb et al. 2017).”