Bibcode
DOI
Groot, P. J.; Galama, T. J.; Vreeswijk, P. M.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.; Pian, E.; Palazzi, E.; van Paradijs, J.; Kouveliotou, C.; in 't Zand, J. J. M.; Heise, J.; Robinson, C.; Tanvir, N.; Lidman, C.; Tinney, C.; Keane, M.; Briggs, M.; Hurley, K.; Gonzalez, J.-F.; Hall, P.; Smith, M. G.; Covarrubias, R.; Jonker, P.; Casares, J.; Masetti, N.; Frontera, F.; Feroci, M.; Piro, L.; Costa, E.; Smith, R.; Jones, B.; Windridge, D.; Bland-Hawthorn, J.; Veilleux, S.; Garcia, M.; Brown, W. R.; Stanek, K. Z.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Gorosabel, J.; Greiner, J.; Jaeger, K.; Bohm, A. B.; Fricke, K. J.
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.502, p.L123
Advertised on:
8
1998
Citations
79
Refereed citations
63
Description
We report the discovery of the optical counterpart to GRB 980326. Its
rapid optical decay can be characterized by a power law with exponent -
2.10+/-0.13 and a constant underlying source at R_{{c}}=25.5+/-0.5 . Its
optical colors 2.1 days after the burst imply a spectral slope of -
0.66+/-0.70 . The gamma -ray spectrum as observed with BATSE shows that
it is among the 4% softest bursts ever recorded. We argue that the rapid
optical decay may be a reason for the nondetection of some low-energy
afterglows of GRBs.