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Published 2001 | public
Book Section - Chapter

The Observed Offset Distribution of GRBs about Their Hosts

Abstract

We summarize the results of a comprehensive survey to measure the location of 20 cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in and around galaxies. We find that all well-localized GRBs to-date fall within 1.2 arcsec (10 kpc in projection) from the nearest detected galaxy. We estimate on statistical grounds that most if not all of these nearby "host" galaxies are indeed physically associated with the respective GRB and not a spurious superposition. The observed distribution of GRBs offsets about their hosts are consistent with a progenitor population that burst near the sites of massive star formation (eg. "collapsars") and inconsistent with the modeled location of degenerate binary systems (eg. neutron-star-neutron-star and neutron-star-black-hole mergers) which travel far from their birthsite.

Additional Information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2001

Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
January 14, 2024