The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
A Sensitive Search for Supernova Emission Associated with the Extremely Energetic and Nearby GRB 221009A
- Gokul P. Srinivasaragavan,
- Brendan O’Connor,
- S. Bradley Cenko,
- Alexander J. Dittmann,
- Sheng Yang,
- Jesper Sollerman,
- G. C. Anupama,
- Sudhanshu Barway,
- Varun Bhalerao,
- Harsh Kumar,
- Vishwajeet Swain,
- Erica Hammerstein,
- Isiah Holt,
- Shreya Anand,
- Igor Andreoni,
- Michael W. Coughlin,
- Simone Dichiara,
- Avishay Gal-Yam,
- M. Coleman Miller,
- Jaime Soon,
- Roberto Soria,
- Joseph Durbak,
- James H. Gillanders,
- Sibasish Laha,
- Anna M. Moore,
- Fabio Ragosta,
- Eleonora Troja
Affiliations
- Gokul P. Srinivasaragavan
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Brendan O’Connor
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Department of Physics, The George Washington University , Washington, DC 20052, USA; Astronomy, Physics and Statistics Institute of Sciences (APSIS), The George Washington University , Washington, DC 20052, USA
- S. Bradley Cenko
- ORCiD
- Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Alexander J. Dittmann
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Sheng Yang
- ORCiD
- Henan Academy of Sciences , Zhengzhou 450046, Henan, People's Republic of China; Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Center, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- Jesper Sollerman
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Oskar Klein Center, Stockholm University , AlbaNova, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
- G. C. Anupama
- ORCiD
- Indian Institute of Astrophysics , 2nd Block 100 Feet Rd, Koramangala Bangalore 560 034, India
- Sudhanshu Barway
- ORCiD
- Indian Institute of Astrophysics , 2nd Block 100 Feet Rd, Koramangala Bangalore 560 034, India
- Varun Bhalerao
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Powai 400 076, India
- Harsh Kumar
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Powai 400 076, India
- Vishwajeet Swain
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , Powai 400 076, India
- Erica Hammerstein
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology , NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Isiah Holt
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Shreya Anand
- ORCiD
- Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology , Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Igor Andreoni
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA; Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Michael W. Coughlin
- ORCiD
- School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
- Simone Dichiara
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Avishay Gal-Yam
- ORCiD
- Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science , 76100 Rehovot, Israel
- M. Coleman Miller
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA ; [email protected]; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Jaime Soon
- ORCiD
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Cotter Rd, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
- Roberto Soria
- ORCiD
- College of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China; INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino , Strada Osservatorio 20, I-10025 Pino Torinese, Italy; Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney , NSW 2006, Australia
- Joseph Durbak
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology , NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Department of Physics, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA
- James H. Gillanders
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata , via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome, Italy
- Sibasish Laha
- ORCiD
- Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology , NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County , 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
- Anna M. Moore
- ORCiD
- Australian National University , Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Cotter Road, Weston Creek 2611, Australia
- Fabio Ragosta
- ORCiD
- INAF , Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, I-00078 Monte Porzio Catone (RM), Italy
- Eleonora Troja
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Rome “Tor Vergata , via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, I-00133 Rome, Italy; INAF—Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali , via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Rome, Italy
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/accf97
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 949,
no. 2
p. L39
Abstract
We report observations of the optical counterpart of the long gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A. Due to the extreme rarity of being both nearby ( z = 0.151) and highly energetic ( E _γ _,iso ≥ 10 ^54 erg), GRB 221009A offers a unique opportunity to probe the connection between massive star core collapse and relativistic jet formation across a very broad range of γ -ray properties. Adopting a phenomenological power-law model for the afterglow and host galaxy estimates from high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we use Bayesian model comparison techniques to determine the likelihood of an associated supernova (SN) contributing excess flux to the optical light curve. Though not conclusive, we find moderate evidence ( K _Bayes = 10 ^1.2 ) for the presence of an additional component arising from an associated SN, SN 2022xiw, and find that it must be substantially fainter (<67% as bright at the 99% confidence interval) than SN 1998bw. Given the large and uncertain line-of-sight extinction, we attempt to constrain the SN parameters ( M _Ni , M _ej , and E _KE ) under several different assumptions with respect to the host galaxy’s extinction. We find properties that are broadly consistent with previous GRB-associated SNe: M _Ni = 0.05–0.25 M _⊙ , M _ej = 3.5–11.1 M _⊙ , and E _KE = (1.6–5.2) × 10 ^52 erg. We note that these properties are weakly constrained due to the faintness of the SN with respect to the afterglow and host emission, but we do find a robust upper limit on M _Ni of M _Ni < 0.36 M _⊙ . Given the tremendous range in isotropic gamma-ray energy release exhibited by GRBs (seven orders of magnitude), the SN emission appears to be decoupled from the central engine in these systems.
Keywords
