Identifying the Location in the Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 111117A with the Chandra Subarcsecond Position - UTU Research Portal

A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Identifying the Location in the Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 111117A with the Chandra Subarcsecond Position

Authors: Sakamoto T, Troja E, Aoki K, Guiriec S, Im M, Leloudas G, Malesani D, Melandri A, de Ugarte Postigo A, Urata Y, Xu D, D'Avanzo P, Gorosabel J, Jeon Y, Sánchez-Ramírez R, Andersen M I, Bai J, Barthelmy S D, Briggs M S, Foley S, Fruchter A S, Fynbo J P U, Gehrels N, Huang K, Jang M, Kawai N, Korhonen H, Mao J, Norris J P, Preece R D, Racusin J L, Thöne C C, Vida K, Zhao X

Publisher: IOP Science

Publication year: 2013

Journal: Astrophysical Journal

Journal acronym: ApJ

Article number: 41

Number in series: 1

Volume: 766

Issue: 1

Number of pages: 12

ISSN: 0004-637X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/766/1/41

Web address : http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/766/1/41

Abstract

We present our successful Chandra program designed to identify, with subarcsecond accuracy, the X-ray afterglow of the short GRB 111117A, which was discovered by Swift and Fermi. Thanks to our rapid target of opportunity request, Chandra clearly detected the X-ray afterglow, though no optical afterglow was found in deep optical observations. The host galaxy was clearly detected in the optical and near-infrared band, with the best photometric redshift of z=1.31_{-0.23}^{+0.46} (90% confidence), making it one of the highest known short gamma-ray burst (GRB) redshifts. Furthermore, we see an offset of 1.0 ± 0.2 arcsec, which corresponds to 8.4 ± 1.7 kpc, between the host and the afterglow position. We discuss the importance of using Chandra for obtaining subarcsecond X-ray localizations of short GRB afterglows to study GRB environments.