Observation of GRBs with AGILE

TL;DR

The AGILE satellite observes Gamma Ray Bursts across a broad energy spectrum, detecting and localizing several GRBs with high precision, especially focusing on high-energy and short-duration events, enhancing understanding of GRB phenomena.

Contribution

This paper provides a comprehensive review of AGILE's capabilities and recent observations of GRBs, highlighting its unique detection of high-energy and short-time-scale bursts.

Findings

Detection of three GRBs by the GRID instrument.

Localization of about one GRB/month by SuperAGILE.

Detection of 1-2 GRBs per month in the 350keV - 100MeV range.

Abstract

Since its early phases of operation, the AGILE satellite is observing Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) over an energy range potentially spanning six orders of magnitude. In the hard X-ray band the SuperAGILE imager provides localization of about one GRB/month plus the detection of 1-2 GRBs per month out of its field of view. The Mini-Calorimeter detects about one GRB/week in the 350keV - 100MeV energy range, plus several other transients at very short time scales. In fact, the on-board MCAL trigger logic, implemented for the first time on time windows as short as 300 microseconds, is particularly suitable for very short bursts detection. The Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID), sensitive in the 30MeV - 30GeV range, firmly detected three GRBs (GRB080514B, GRB090401B and GRB090510) plus some other candidates at a lower significance level. Moreover, all GRBs localized by other spacecrafts inside the GRID field of view are currently searched for possible detection, and upper limits are provided. In this paper we review the status of the observation of GRBs with AGILE, with particular emphasis on high energy and short time scales detections.