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The Afterglows of Swift -Era Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Comparing The Astrophysical Journal, 720:1513–1558, 2010 September 10 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/720/2/1513 C 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. THE AFTERGLOWS OF SWIFT-ERA GAMMA-RAY BURSTS. I. COMPARING PRE-SWIFT AND SWIFT-ERA LONG/SOFT (TYPE II) GRB OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS∗ D. A. Kann1,S.Klose1, B. Zhang2, D. Malesani3, E. Nakar4,5, A. Pozanenko6,A.C.Wilson7, N. R. Butler8,9,52, P. Jakobsson10,11, S. Schulze1,11, M. Andreev12,13, L. A. Antonelli14,I.F.Bikmaev15, V. Biryukov16,17,M.Bottcher¨ 18, R. A. Burenin6, J. M. Castro Ceron´ 3,19, A. J. Castro-Tirado20, G. Chincarini21,22,B.E.Cobb23,24,S.Covino21, P. D’Avanzo22,25,V.D’Elia14,26, M. Della Valle27,28,29, A. de Ugarte Postigo21, Yu. Efimov16, P. Ferrero1,30, D. Fugazza21,J.P.U.Fynbo3, M. Gålfalk31, F. Grundahl32, J. Gorosabel20, S. Gupta18,S.Guziy20, B. Hafizov33, J. Hjorth3, K. Holhjem34,35, M. Ibrahimov33,M.Im36, G. L. Israel14,M.Jelinek´ 20,B.L.Jensen3, R. Karimov33, I. M. Khamitov37, U.¨ Kizilogluˇ 38, E. Klunko39,P.Kubanek´ 19, A. S. Kutyrev40, P. Laursen3, A. J. Levan41, F. Mannucci42, C. M. Martin43, A. Mescheryakov6, N. Mirabal44,53, J. P. Norris45, J.-E. Ovaldsen46, D. Paraficz3, E. Pavlenko17, S. Piranomonte14,A.Rossi1, V. Rumyantsev17, R. Salinas47, A. Sergeev12,13, D. Sharapov33, J. Sollerman3,31, B. Stecklum1, L. Stella14, G. Tagliaferri21,N.R.Tanvir48, J. Telting33, V. Testa14, A. C. Updike49, A. Volnova50, D. Watson3, K. Wiersema48,51, and D. Xu3 1 Thuringer¨ Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, D–07778 Tautenburg, Germany 2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA 3 Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 København Ø, Denmark 4 Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 5 Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics & Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel 6 Space Research Institute (IKI), 84/32 Profsoyuznaya Str, Moscow 117997, Russia 7 Department of Astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712, USA 8 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-7450, USA 9 Astronomy Department, University of California, 445 Campbell Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA 10 Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts, AL10 9AB, UK 11 Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology, Science Institute, University of Iceland, Dunhagi 5, IS 107 Reykjavik, Iceland 12 Terskol Branch of Institute of Astronomy of RAS, Kabardino-Balkaria Republic 361605, Russian Federation 13 International Centre of Astronomical and Medico-Ecological Research of NASU, 27 Akademika Zabolotnoho St. 03680 Kyiv, Ukraine 14 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via Frascati 33, 00040, Monteporzio Catone (RM), Italy 15 Kazan State University and Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan, Kazan, Russia 16 Crimean Laboratory of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Nauchny, Crimea 98409, Ukraine 17 SRI “Crimean Astrophysical Observatory” (CrAO), Nauchny, Crimea 98409, Ukraine 18 Astrophysical Institute, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clippinger 339, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701, USA 19 European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), P.O. Box-Apdo. de correos 78, 28691 Villanueva de la Canada,˜ Madrid, Spain 20 Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Andaluc´ıa (IAA-CSIC), Apartado de Correos, 3004, E-18080 Granada, Spain 21 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate (LC), Italy 22 Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita` degli studi di Milano-Bicocca, piazza delle Scienze 3, 20126 Milano, Italy 23 Department of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520, USA 24 Department of Astronomy, 601 Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720–3411, USA 25 Dipartimento di Fisica e Matematica, Universita` dell’Insubria, via Valleggio 11, 22100 Como, Italy 26 ASI-Science Data Centre, Via Galileo Galilei, I-00044 Frascati, Italy 27 INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, Salita Moiariello, 16 80131, Napoli, Italy 28 European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarschild Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching bei Munchen,¨ Germany 29 International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics Network, Piazzale della Republica 2, Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy 30 Instituto de Astrof´ısica de Canarias, C/ V´ıa Lactea,´ s/n E38205-La Laguna (Tenerife), Spain 31 Stockholm Observatory, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Centre, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden 32 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, 8000 Århus C, Denmark 33 Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute, Tashkent 700052, Uzbekistan 34 Nordic Optical Telescope, Apartado 474, Santa Cruz de La Palma, Spain 35 Argelander-Institut fur¨ Astronomie, Universitat¨ Bonn, Auf dem Hugel¨ 71, D-53121 Bonn, Germany 36 Center for the Exploration of the Origin of the Universe (CEOU), Astronomy Program, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University, 56-1 San, Shillim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul, South Korea 37 TUB¨ ITAK˙ National Observatory, Antalya, Turkey 38 Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey 39 Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Lermontov st., 126a, Irkutsk 664033, Russia 40 Observational Cosmology Laboratory, NASA/GSFC, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771-2400, USA 41 Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK 42 INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy 43 Loyola College, 4501 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21210, USA 44 Dpto. de F´ısica Atomica,´ Molecular y Nuclear, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain 45 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208, USA 46 Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1029, Blindern, N-0315 Oslo, Norway 47 Grupo de Astronom´ıa, Facultad de Ciencias F´ısicas y Matematicas,´ Universidad de Concepcion,´ Concepcion,´ Chile 48 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK 49 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Clemson University, 118 Kinard Laboratory, Clemson, SC 29634, USA 50 Sternberg Astronomical Institute, Moscow State University, Universitetsky pr., 13, Moscow 119992, Russia 51 Astronomical Institute “Anton Pannekoek,” University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Received 2007 December 13; accepted 2010 July 15; published 2010 August 23 1513 1514 KANN ET AL. Vol. 720 ABSTRACT We have gathered optical photometry data from the literature on a large sample of Swift-era gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows including GRBs up to 2009 September, for a total of 76 GRBs, and present an additional three pre-Swift GRBs not included in an earlier sample. Furthermore, we publish 840 additional new photometry data points on a total of 42 GRB afterglows, including large data sets for GRBs 050319, 050408, 050802, 050820A, 050922C, 060418, 080413A, and 080810. We analyzed the light curves of all GRBs in the sample and derived spectral energy distributions for the sample with the best data quality, allowing us to estimate the host-galaxy extinction. We transformed the afterglow light curves into an extinction-corrected z = 1system and compared their luminosities with a sample of pre-Swift afterglows. The results of a former study, which showed that GRB afterglows clustered and exhibited a bimodal distribution in luminosity space, are weakened by the larger sample. We found that the luminosity distribution of the two afterglow samples (Swift-era and pre-Swift) is very similar, and that a subsample for which we were not able to estimate the extinction, which is fainter than the main sample, can be explained by assuming a moderate amount of line-of-sight host extinction. We derived bolometric isotropic energies for all GRBs in our sample, and found only a tentative correlation between the prompt energy release and the optical afterglow luminosity at 1 day after the GRB in the z = 1 system. A comparative study of the optical luminosities of GRB afterglows with echelle spectra (which show a high number of foreground absorbing systems) and those without, reveals no indication that the former are statistically significantly more luminous. Furthermore, we propose the existence of an upper ceiling on afterglow luminosities and study the luminosity distribution at early times, which was not accessible before the advent of the Swift satellite. Most GRBs feature afterglows that are dominated by the forward shock from early times on. Finally, we present the first indications of a class of long GRBs, which form a bridge between the typical high- luminosity, high-redshift events and nearby low-luminosity events (which are also associated with spectroscopic supernovae) in terms of energetics and observed redshift distribution, indicating a continuous distribution overall. Key words: dust, extinction – gamma-ray burst: general Online-only material: color figures, machine-readable table 1. INTRODUCTION and even the dust type in some cases. In our previous study (Kann et al. 2006, henceforth K06), we found that the afterglows The study of the optical afterglows of gamma-ray bursts that met our selection criteria typically had little line-of-sight (GRBs), first discovered over a decade ago (van Paradijs et al. extinction, and that the dust properties were best described by 1997), has taken a great leap forward with the launch of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) dust, which shows no UV bump Swift satellite (Gehrels et al. 2004). Its high γ -ray sensitivity and strong FUV extinction (e.g., Pei 1992). These results were and rapid repointing capabilities have ushered in an era of dense confirmed by Starling et al. (2007a), who studied a smaller early afterglow observations. In the optical regime, one sobering sample but also incorporated X-ray afterglow data, as well as result is that early afterglows are not as bright as expected, and Schady et al. (2007a, 2010), who also employed joint optical- early optical faintness seems to be the norm rather than the to-X-ray fits as well as UVOT (and ground-based) data.
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