Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: We report optical and near-infrared follow-up observations of GRB 011121 collected predominantly at ESO telescopes in Chile. We discover a break in the afterglow light curve after 1.3 days, which implies an initial jet opening angle of about 9°. The jet origin of this break is supported by the fact that the spectral energy distribution is achromatic during the first 4 days. During later phases, GRB 011121 shows significant excess emission above the flux predicted by a power law, which we interpret as additional light from an underlying supernova. In particular, the spectral energy distribution of the optical transient approximately 2 weeks after the burst is clearly not of power-law type but can be presented by a blackbody with a temperature of ~6000 K. The deduced parameters for the decay slope and the spectral index favor a wind scenario, i.e., an outflow into a circumburst environment shaped by the stellar wind of a massive gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. Because of its low redshift of z = 0.36, GRB 011121 has been the best example for the GRB-supernova connection until GRB 030329 and provides compelling evidence for a circumburster wind region expected to exist if the progenitor was a massive star.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
DOI: 10.1086/379606
Authors: J. Greiner, S. Klose, M. Salvato, A. Zeh, R. Schwarz, D. H. Hartmann, N. Masetti, B. Stecklum, G. Lamer, N. Lodieu, R. D. Scholz, C. Sterken, J. Gorosabel, I. Burud, J. Rhoads, I. Mitrofanov, M. Litvak, A. Sanin, V. Grinkov, M. I. Andersen, J. M. Castro Ceron, A. J. Castro‐Tirado, A. Fruchter, J. U. Fynbo, J. Hjorth, L. Kaper, C. Kouveliotou, E. Palazzi, E. Pian, E. Rol, N. R. Tanvir, P. M. Vreeswijk, R. A. M. J. Wijers, E. van den Heuvel
Institutions: Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Clemson University, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica di Bologna, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Space Telescope Science Institute, Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Russian Academy of Sciences, Space Research Institute, Royal Institute and Observatory of the Spanish Navy, Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen, University of Amsterdam, National Space Science and Technology Center, Trieste Astronomical Observatory, National Institute for Astrophysics, University of Hertfordshire, European Southern Observatory
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2163072425