The sub-energetic γ-ray burst GRB 031203 as a cosmic analogue to the nearby GRB 980425

A. M. Soderberg, S. R. Kulkarni, E. Berger, D. W. Fox, M. Sako, D. A. Frail, A. Gai-Yam, D. S. Moon, S. B. Cenko, S. A. Yost, M. M. Phillips, S. E. Persson, W. L. Freedman, P. Wyatt, R. Jayawardhana, D. Paulson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

180 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over the six years since the discovery of the γ-ray burst GRB 980425, which was associated with the nearby (distance ∼40 Mpc) supernova 1998bw, astronomers have debated fiercely the nature of this event. Relative to bursts located at cosmological distance (redshift z ≈ 1), GRB 980425 was under-luminous in γ-rays by three orders of magnitude. Radio calorimetry showed that the explosion was sub-energetic by a factor of 10. Here we report observations of the radio and X-ray afterglow of the recent GRB 031203 (refs 5-7), which has a redshift of z = 0.105. We demonstrate that it too is sub-energetic which, when taken together with the low γ-ray luminosity, suggests that GRB 031203 is the first cosmic analogue to GRB 980425. We find no evidence that this event was a highly collimated explosion viewed off-axis. Like GRB 980425, GRB 031203 appears to be an intrinsically sub-energetic γ-ray burst. Such sub-energetic events have faint afterglows. We expect intensive follow-up of faint bursts with smooth γ-ray light curves (common to both GRB 031203 and 980425) to reveal a large population of such events.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)648-650
Number of pages3
JournalNature
Volume430
Issue number7000
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 5 2004

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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