An Estimation of the Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Apparent Optical Brightness Distribution Function

TL;DR

This paper estimates the distribution of optical brightness in gamma-ray burst afterglows using observational data and novel analysis, revealing that most afterglows are brighter than magnitude 22.1 and peaking around 19.5, aiding future observation strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a new data analysis technique to estimate the optical brightness distribution of GRB afterglows from heterogeneous data sets.

Findings

71% of afterglows have mR < 22.1 at 1000 seconds

Distribution peaks at mR ~ 19.5

Method can be applied to other data analysis problems

Abstract

By using recent publicly available observational data obtained in conjunction with the NASA Swift gamma-ray burst mission and a novel data analysis technique, we have been able to make some rough estimates of the GRB afterglow apparent optical brightness distribution function. The results suggest that 71% of all burst afterglows have optical magnitudes with mR < 22.1 at 1000 seconds after the burst onset, the dimmest detected object in the data sample. There is a strong indication that the apparent optical magnitude distribution function peaks at mR ~ 19.5. Such estimates may prove useful in guiding future plans to improve GRB counterpart observation programs. The employed numerical techniques might find application in a variety of other data analysis problems in which the intrinsic distributions must be inferred from a heterogeneous sample.