Bjarne Thomsen

Very high column density and small reddening toward GRB 020124 at z = 3.20

We present optical and near-infrared observations of the dim afterglow of GRB 020124, obtained between 2 and 68 hr after the gamma-ray burst. The burst occurred in a very faint (R 29.5) damped Lyα absorber (DLA) at a redshift of z = 3.198 ± 0.004. The derived column density of neutral hydrogen is log(N) = 21.7 ± 0.2, and the rest-frame reddening is constrained to be E(B-V) < 0.065, i.e., AV < 0.20 for standard extinction laws with RV ≈ 3. The resulting dust-to-gas ratio is less than 11% of that found in the Milky Way but consistent with the SMC and high-redshift QSO DLAs, indicating a low metallicity and/or a low dust-to-metal ratio in the burst environment. A gray extinction law (large RV), produced through preferential destruction of small dust grains by the gamma-ray burst, could increase the derived AV and dust-to-gas ratio. The dimness of the afterglow is, however, fully accounted for by the high redshift: if GRB 020124 had been at z = 1, it would have been approximately 1.8 mag brighter—in the range of typical bright afterglows.

The afterglow of the short/intermediate-duration gamma-ray burst GRB 000301C: A jet at z = 2:04 ?;??;???

We present Ulysses and NEAR data from the detection of the short or intermediate duration (2 s) gamma-ray burst GRB000301C (2000 March 1.41 UT). The gamma-ray burst (GRB) was localised by the Inter Planetary Network (IPN) and RXTE to an area of 50 arcmin^2. A fading optical counterpart was subsequently discovered with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) about 42h after the burst. The GRB lies at the border between the long-soft and the short-hard classes of GRBs. If GRB000301C belongs to the latter class, this would be the first detection of an afterglow to a short-hard burst. We present UBRI and JHK photometry from the time of the discovery until 11 days after the burst. Finally, we present spectroscopic observations of the optical afterglow obtained with the ESO VLT Antu telescope 4 and 5 days after the burst. The optical light curve is consistent with being achromatic from 2 to 11 days after the burst and exhibits a break. A broken power-law fit yields a shallow pre-break decay power-law slope of a_1=-0.72+-0.06, a break time of t_b=4.39+-0.26 days after the burst, and a post-break slope of a_2=-2.29+-0.17, which is best explained by a sideways expanding jet in an ambient medium of constant mean density. In the optical spectrum we find absorption features that are consistent with FeII, CIV, CII, SiII and Ly-a at a redshift of 2.0404+-0.0008. We find evidence for a curved shape of the spectral energy distribution of the observed afterglow. It is best fitted with a power-law spectral distribution with index b ~ -0.7 reddened by an SMC-like extinction law with A_V~0.1 mag. Based on the Ly-a absorption line we estimate the HI column density to be log(N(HI))=21.2+-0.5. This is the first direct indication of a connection between GRB host galaxies and Damped Ly-a Absorbers.

The effect of thermal neutrino motion on the non-linear cosmological matter power spectrum

We have performed detailed studies of non-linear structure formation in cosmological models with light neutrinos. For the first time the effect of neutrino thermal velocities has been included in a consistent way, and the effect on the matter power spectrum is found to be significant. The effect is large enough to be measured in future, high precision surveys. Additionally, we provide a simple but accurate analytic expression for the suppression of fluctuation power due to massive neutrinos. Finally, we describe a simple and fast method for including the effect of massive neutrinos in large-scale N-body simulations which is accurate at the 1% level for P m� . 0.15eV.

Optical Photometry of GRB 021004: The First Month*

We present UBVRCIC photometry of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 021004 taken at the Nordic Optical Telescope between approximately 8 hours and 30 days after the burst. These data are combined with an analysis of the 87 ks Chandra X-ray observations of GRB 021004 taken at a mean epoch of 33 hr after the burst to investigate the nature of this GRB. We find an intrinsic spectral slope at optical wavelengths of ?UH = 0.39 ? 0.12 and an X-ray slope of ?X = 0.94 ? 0.03. There is no evidence for color evolution between 8.5 hr and 5.5 days after the burst. The optical decay becomes steeper approximately 5 days after the burst. This appears to be a gradual break due to the onset of sideways expansion in a collimated outflow. Our data suggest that the extragalactic extinction along the line of sight to the burst is between AV ? 0.3 and 0.5 and has an extinction law similar to that of the Small Magellanic Cloud. The optical and X-ray data are consistent with a relativistic fireball with the shocked electrons being in the slow cooling regime and having an electron index of p = 1.9 ? 0.1. The burst occurred in an ambient medium that is homogeneous on scales larger than approximately 1018 cm but inhomogeneous on smaller scales. The mean particle density is similar to what is seen for other bursts (0.1 cm-3 n 100 cm-3). Our results support the idea that the brightening seen at approximately 0.1 days was due to interaction with a clumpy ambient medium within 1017?1018 cm of the progenitor. The agreement between the predicted optical decay and that observed approximately 10 minutes after the burst suggests that the physical mechanism controlling the observed flux at t ? 10 minutes is the same as the one operating at t > 0.5 days.

Deep Ly alpha imaging of two z=2.04 GRB host galaxy fields

We report on the results of deep narrow-band Ly-alpha, U and I imaging of the fields of two GRBs at z=2.04 (GRB 000301C and GRB 000926). We find that the host galaxy of GRB 000926 is an extended, strong Ly-alpha emitter with a rest-frame equivalent width of 71+20-15 AA. The galaxy consists of two main components and several fainter knots. GRB 000926 occurred in the western component, whereas most of the Ly-alpha luminosity (about 65%) originates in the eastern component. Using archival HST images of the host galaxy we measure the spectral slopes (f_lambda prop. to lambda^beta) of the two components to beta = -2.4+-0.3 (east) and -1.4+-0.2 (west). This implies that both components contain at most small amounts of dust, consistent with the observed strong Ly-alpha emission. The western component has a slightly redder V-I colour than the eastern component, suggesting the presence of at least some dust. We do not detect the host galaxy of GRB 000301C in neither Ly-alpha emission nor in U and I-band images. We infer a limit of U(AB)>27.7 (2-sigma limit per arcsec^2). The upper limits on the Ly-alpha flux implies a Ly-alpha equivalent width upper limit of 150AA. We find 11 and 8 other galaxies with excess emission in the narrow filter in the fields of GRB 000301C and GRB 000926 respectively. Based on these detections we conclude that GRB 000926 occurred in one of the strongest centres of star formation within several Mpc, whereas GRB 000301C occurred in an intrinsically very faint galaxy far from being the strongest centre of star formation in its galactic environment. Under the hypothesis that GRBs trace star formation, the wide range of GRB host galaxy luminosities implies a very steep faint end slope of the high redshift galaxy luminosity function.

The Velocity Field of the Local Universe from Measurements of Type Ia Supernovae

We present a measurement of the velocity flow of the local universe relative to the CMB rest frame, based on the Jha, Riess & Kirshner (2007) sample of 133 low redshift type Ia supernovae. At a depth of 4500 km s{sup -1} we find a dipole amplitude of 279 {+-} 68 km s{sup -1} in the direction l = 285{sup o} {+-} 18{sup o}, b = -10{sup o} {+-} 15{sup o}, consistent with earlier measurements and with the assumption that the local velocity field is dominated by the Great Attractor region. At a larger depth of 5900 km s{sup -1} we find a shift in the dipole direction towards the Shapley concentration. We also present the first measurement of the quadrupole term in the local velocity flow at these depths. Finally, we have performed detailed studies based on N-body simulations of the expected precision with which the lowest multipoles in the velocity field can be measured out to redshifts of order 0.1. Our mock catalogues are in good agreement with current observations, and demonstrate that our results are robust with respect to assumptions about the influence of local environment on the type Ia supernova rate.

The Afterglow and Complex Environment of the Optically Dim Burst GRB 980613

We report the identification of the optical afterglow of GRB 980613 in R- and I-band images obtained between 16 and 48 hr after the gamma-ray burst. Early near-infrared (NIR) H and K observations are also reported. The afterglow was optically faint (R ≈ 23) at discovery but did not exhibit an unusually rapid decay (power-law decay slope α < 1.8 at 2 σ). The optical/NIR spectral index (βRH < 1.1) was consistent with the optical-to-X-ray spectral index (βRX ≈ 0.6), indicating a maximal reddening of the afterglow of ≈0.45 mag in R. Hence, the dimness of the optical afterglow was mainly due to the fairly flat spectral shape rather than internal reddening in the host galaxy. We also present late-time Hubble Space Telescope/Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph images of the field in which GRB 980613 occurred, obtained 799 days after the burst. These images show that GRB 980613 was located close to a very compact, blue V = 26.1 object inside a complex region consisting of star-forming knots and/or interacting galaxy fragments. Therefore, GRB 980613 constitutes a strong case for the association of cosmological gamma-ray bursts with star-forming regions.

The host galaxy and optical light curve of the gamma-ray burst GRB 980703

We present deep HST /STIS and ground-based photometry of the host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst GRB 980703 taken 17, 551, 710, and 716 days after the burst. We find that the host is a blue, slightly over-luminous galaxy with

The Distance to the Coma Cluster from Surface Brightness Fluctuations

V_{rm gal} = 23.00 pm 0.10

Optical, Infrared, and Ultraviolet Observations of the X-Ray Flash XRF 050416A

,