A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341

Eleanora Troja; Geoffrey  Ryan; L. Piro; Hendrik Van Eerten; S. B. Cenko; Y Yoon; S.-K Lee; M. Im; T. Sakamoto; P Gatkine; A. Kutyrev; Sylvain Veilleux

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06558-7

A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341

Eleanora Troja, Geoffrey Ryan, L. Piro, Hendrik Van Eerten, S. B. Cenko, Y Yoon, S.-K Lee, M. Im, T. Sakamoto, P Gatkine, A. Kutyrev, Sylvain Veilleux

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

103 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The recent discovery of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B is an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB150101B is a faint short burst characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is produced by a luminous kilonova, while the observed X-rays trace the GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13°. Our findings suggest that these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of GW sources.

Original language	English
Article number	4089
Pages (from-to)	1-10
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	9
Issue number	1
Early online date	16 Oct 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06558-7
Publication status	Published - 16 Oct 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1038/s41467-018-06558-7Licence: CC BY

https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.10624

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abstract = "The recent discovery of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B is an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB150101B is a faint short burst characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is produced by a luminous kilonova, while the observed X-rays trace the GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13°. Our findings suggest that these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of GW sources.",

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AU - Ryan, Geoffrey

AU - Piro, L.

AU - Van Eerten, Hendrik

AU - Cenko, S. B.

AU - Yoon, Y

AU - Lee, S.-K

AU - Im, M.

AU - Sakamoto, T.

AU - Gatkine, P

AU - Kutyrev, A.

AU - Veilleux, Sylvain

PY - 2018/10/16

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N2 - The recent discovery of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B is an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB150101B is a faint short burst characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is produced by a luminous kilonova, while the observed X-rays trace the GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13°. Our findings suggest that these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of GW sources.

AB - The recent discovery of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B is an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB150101B is a faint short burst characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is produced by a luminous kilonova, while the observed X-rays trace the GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of ~13°. Our findings suggest that these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of GW sources.

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A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341

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A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z=0.1341

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