ABSTRACT In this catalog, we present the results of a systematic study of 295 short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by Konus-Wind (KW) from 1994 to 2010. From the temporal and spectral analyses of ...the sample, we provide the burst durations, the spectral lags, the results of spectral fits with three model functions, the total energy fluences, and the peak energy fluxes of the bursts. We discuss evidence found for an additional power-law spectral component and the presence of extended emission in a fraction of the KW short GRBs. Finally, we consider the results obtained in the context of the Type I (merger-origin)/Type II (collapsar-origin) classifications.
Abstract
We present a database of solar flares registered by the Konus-Wind instrument during more than 27 yr of operation, from 1994 November to now (2022 June). The constantly updated database ...(hereafter KW-Sun) contains over 1000 events detected in the instrument’s triggered mode and is accessible online at
http://www.ioffe.ru/LEA/kwsun/
. For each flare, the database provides time-resolved energy spectra in energy range from ∼20 keV to ∼15 MeV in FITS format along with count-rate light curves in three wide-energy bands, G1 (∼20–80 keV), G2 (∼80–300 keV), and G3 (∼300–1200 keV), with high time resolution (down to 16 ms) in ASCII and IDL SAV formats. This article focuses on the instrument capabilities in the context of solar observations, the structure of the KW-Sun data, and their intended usage. The presented homogeneous data set obtained in the broad energy range with high temporal resolution during more than two full solar cycles is beneficial for both statistical and case studies as well as a source of context data for solar flare research.
We examine a sample of 2301 gamma-ray bursts, detected by Konus-Wind in the triggered mode between 1994 and 2017 and localized by the interplanetary network (IPN), for evidence of gravitational ...lensing. We utilize all the available gamma-ray burst (GRB) data: time histories, localizations, and energy spectra. We employ common IPN techniques to find and quantify similarities in the light curves of 2,646,150 burst pairs, and for the pairs with significant similarities, we examine their IPN localizations to determine whether they are consistent with a common origin. For pairs that are consistent, we derive and compare energy spectra, and compute a figure of merit that allows us to compare and rank burst pairs. We conduct both a blind search, between all possible burst pairs, and a targeted search, between pairs in which one burst has both a spectroscopic redshift and an identification of an intervening system, as measured by one or more lower spectroscopic redshifts. We identify six pairs in the blind search that could be taken as evidence for lensing, but none are compelling enough to claim a detection with good confidence. No candidates were detected in the targeted search. For our GRB sample, we set an upper limit to the optical depth to lensing of 0.0033, which is comparable to that of optical sources. We conclude that proposed scenarios in which a large fraction of the GRB population is lensed are extremely unlikely.
We present observations of the dark gamma-ray burst GRB 051008 provided by Swift/BAT, Swift/XRT, Konus-WIND, INTEGRAL/SPI-ACS in the high-energy domain and the Shajn, Swift/UVOT, Tautenburg, NOT, ...Gemini and Keck I telescopes in the optical and near-infrared bands. The burst was detected only in gamma- and X-rays and neither a prompt optical nor a radio afterglow was detected down to deep limits. We identified the host galaxy of the burst, which is a typical Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) with R-magnitude of 24.06 ± 0.10 mag. A redshift of the galaxy of
$z = 2.77_{-0.20}^{+0.15}$
is measured photometrically due to the presence of a clear, strong Lyman-break feature. The host galaxy is a small starburst galaxy with moderate intrinsic extinction (A
V
= 0.3) and has a star formation rate of ∼60 M⊙ yr−1 typical for LBGs. It is one of the few cases where a GRB host has been found to be a classical LBG. Using the redshift we estimate the isotropic-equivalent radiated energy of the burst to be E
iso = (1.15 ± 0.20) × 1054 erg. We also provide evidence in favour of the hypothesis that the darkness of GRB 051008 is due to local absorption resulting from a dense circumburst medium.
Abstract
We present the catalog of InterPlanetary Network (IPN) localizations for 199 short-duration gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) detected by the Konus-Wind (KW) experiment between 2011 January 1 and ...2021 August 31, which extends the initial sample of IPN-localized KW sGRBs to 495 events. We present the most comprehensive IPN localization data on these events, including probability sky maps in Hierarchical Equal Area isoLatitude Pixelization format.
We report the early discovery of the optical afterglow of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 140801A in the 137 deg... 3-... error-box of the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM). MASTER is the only observatory ...that automatically reacts to all Fermi alerts. GRB 140801A is one of the few GRBs whose optical counterpart was discovered solely from its GBM localization. The optical afterglow of GRB 140801A was found by MASTER Global Robotic Net 53 s after receiving the alert, making it the fastest optical detection of a GRB from a GBM error-box. Spectroscopy obtained with the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias and the 6-m Big Telescope Alt-azimuth of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences reveals a redshift of z = 1.32. We performed optical and near-infrared photometry of GRB 140801A using different telescopes with apertures ranging from 0.4 to 10.4 m. GRB 140801A is a typical burst in many ways. The rest-frame bolometric isotropic energy release and peak energy of the burst are ... erg and ..., respectively, which is consistent with the Amati relation. The absence of a jet break in the optical light curve provides a lower limit on the half-opening angle of the ... The observed ... is consistent with the limit derived from the Ghirlanda relation. The joint Fermi GBM and Konus-Wind analysis show that GRB 140801A could belong to the class of intermediate duration. The rapid detection of the optical counterpart of GRB 140801A is especially important regarding the upcoming experiments with large coordinate error-box areas. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We present the analysis of duration and spectral-hardness distributions of ∼ 3000 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by Konus-Wind (KW) between November 1994 and early February 2019. We analyse burst ...T50 and T90 durations (the time intervals which contain the central 50% to 90% of the total burst count fluence, respectively) and argue that T50 is more robust duration measure than T90. Using a two log-normal component fit to the T50 distribution we pick the boundary between the overlapping classes of short-duration and long-duration bursts to be at T50 = 0.7 s, which implies the fraction of short GRBs (T50 < 0.7 s) to be ∼ 17%. Using Gaussian mixture model fits we show that hardness-duration distribution can be well described by three Gaussian components, with two components corresponding to short/hard and long/soft GRB population, and the third component covering the softest GRBs with intermediate durations. This classification suggests that ∼ 14% KW GRBs are from short/hard population. Finally we discuss a possibility to discriminate between physically distinct Type I and Type II GRBs with the help of hardness-duration distribution.
We present the search for and classification of hard X-ray and soft γ-ray transient events in the archive of continuous (waiting-mode) Konus-Wind observations. We found ∼ 26 000 transient events; ...among them, ∼ 12 000 are solar flares (∼ 10 times as much as observed in triggered mode); and ∼ 5 000 are gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) confirmed by other space missions (∼ 2 times as much as detected in triggered mode). The remaining ∼ 9 000 events include Galactic transients, unconfirmed GRBs and possible solar flares. We discuss the application of developed techniques for GRBs accompanied by supernovae, high-energy neutrinos and sources of gravitational waves.
Aims. Prompt or early optical emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is notoriously difficult to measure, and observations of the dozen cases show a large variety of properties. Yet, such early emission ...promises to help us achieve a better understanding of the GRB emission process(es). Methods. We performed dedicated observations of the ultra-long duration (T90 about 7000 s) Swift GRB 130925A in the optical/near-infrared with the 7-channel Gamma-Ray burst Optical and Near-infrared Detector (GROND) at the 2.2 m MPG/ESO telescope. Results. We detect an optical/near-infrared flare with an amplitude of nearly 2 mag which is delayed with respect to the keV−MeV prompt emission by about 300−400 s. The decay time of this flare is shorter than the duration of the flare (500 s) or its delay. Conclusions. While we cannot offer a straightforward explanation, we discuss the implications of the flare properties and suggest ways toward understanding it.
We present a preliminary analysis of spectral evolution of 35 long bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by Konus-Wind instrument. From the temporal and spectral analyses of the sample, we ...investigate the evolution of parameters of the smoothly joined broken power-law spectral model (the Band "GRB" function), in particular, we analyse hardness-intensity correlation within a burst. We show that the bulk of bursts exhibit Ep ∝ Fγ relation with the slope γ ∼ 0.3−0.5, where Ep is the vFv spectrum peak energy and F is the energy flux; while a number of events have the smooth initial phase with strong spectral evolution with γ ≳ 1. Finally, we discuss derived the Band function parameters and their evolution pattern in the framework of GRB emission models.