A multi band study of the optically dark GRB 051028

TL;DR

This study observes the optical afterglow of GRB 051028, finding it optically faint but not due to dust or high redshift, suggesting intrinsic darkness of the afterglow.

Contribution

It provides detailed optical observations of GRB 051028 and analyzes reasons for its darkness, challenging previous explanations involving dust extinction or high redshift.

Findings

Optical afterglow shows a possible plateau around 0.1 days.

Brightness is 3 magnitudes fainter than a known dark GRB.

Spectral analysis indicates no significant host galaxy absorption.

Abstract

Observations were made of the optical afterglow of GRB 051028 with the Lulin observatory's 1.0 m telescope and the WIDGET robotic telescope system. R band photometric data points were obtained on 2005 October 28 (UT), or 0.095-0.180 days after the burst. There is a possible plateau in the optical light curve around 0.1 days after the burst; the light curve resembles optically bright afterglows (e.g. GRB 041006, GRB 050319, GRB060605) in shape of the light curve but not in brightness. The brightness of the GRB 051028 afterglow is 3 magnitudes fainter than that of one of the dark events, GRB 020124. Optically dark GRBs have been attributed to dust extinction within the host galaxy or high redshift. However, the spectrum analysis of the X-rays implies that there is no significant absorption by the host galaxy. Furthermore, according to the model theoretical calculation of the Ly$\alpha$ absorption to find the limit of GRB 051028's redshift, the expected $R$ band absorption is not high enough to explain the darkness of the afterglow. While the present results disfavor either the high-redshift hypothesis or the high extinction scenario for optically dark bursts, they are consistent with the possibility that the brightness of the optical afterglow, intrinsically dark.