Browsing by Author "Sbarufatti, B."

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    BL Lacertae identifications in a ROSAT-selected sample of Fermi unidentified objects
    (2013) Masetti, N.; Sbarufatti, B.; Parisi, P.; Jimenez-Bailon, E.; Chavushyan, V.; Vogt, F. P. A.; Sguera, V.; Stephen, J. B.; Palazzi, E.; Bassani, L.; Bazzano, A.; Fiocchi, M.; Galaz, G.; Landi, R.; Malizia, A.; Minniti, D.; Morelli, L.; Ubertini, P.
    The optical spectroscopic followup of 27 sources belonging to a sample of 30 high-energy objects selected by positionally cross correlating the first Fermi/LAT Catalog and the ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalog is presented here. It has been found or confirmed that 25 of them are BL Lacertae objects (BL Lacs), while the remaining two are Galactic cataclysmic variables (CVs). This strongly suggests that the sources in the first group are responsible for the GeV emission detected with Fermi, while the two CVs most likely represent spurious associations. We thus find an 80% a posteriori probability that the sources selected by matching GeV and X-ray catalogs belong to the BL Lac class. We also show suggestions that the BL Lacs selected with this approach are probably high-synchrotron-peaked sources and in turn good candidates for the detection of ultra-high-energy (TeV) photons from them.
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    The central engine of GRB 130831A and the energy breakdown of a relativistic explosion
    (OXFORD UNIV PRESS, 2016) De Pasquale, M.; Oates, S. R.; Racusin, J. L.; Kann, D. A.; Zhang, B.; Pozanenko, A.; Volnova, A. A.; Trotter, A.; Frank, N.; Cucchiara, A.; Troja, E.; Sbarufatti, B.; Butler, N. R.; Schulze, S.; Cano, Z.; Page, M. J.; Castro Tirado, A. J.; Gorosabel, J.; Lien, A.; Fox, O.; Littlejohns, O.; Bloom, J. S.; Prochaska, J. X.; de Diego, J. A.; Gonzalez, J.; Richer, M. G.; Roman Zuniga, C.; Watson, A. M.; Gehrels, N.; Moseley, H.; Kutyrev, A.; Zane, S.; Hoette, V.; Russell, R. R.; Rumyantsev, V.; Klunko, E.; Burkhonov, O.; Breeveld, A. A.; Reichart, D. E.; Haislip, J. B.
    Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, yet the nature and physical properties of their energy sources are far from understood. Very important clues, however, can be inferred by studying the afterglows of these events. We present optical and X-ray observations of GRB 130831A obtained by Swift, Chandra, Skynet, Reionization And Transients Infra-Red camera, Maidanak, International Scientific Optical-Observation Network, Nordic Optical Telescope, Liverpool Telescope and Gran Telescopio Canarias. This burst shows a steep drop in the X-ray light curve at similar to 10(5) s after the trigger, with a power-law decay index of a similar to 6. Such a rare behaviour cannot be explained by the standard forward shock (FS) model and indicates that the emission, up to the fast decay at 105 s, must be of 'internal origin', produced by a dissipation process within an ultrarelativistic outflow. We propose that the source of such an outflow, which must produce the X-ray flux for similar to 1 d in the cosmological rest frame, is a newly born magnetar or black hole. After the drop, the faint X-ray afterglow continues with a much shallower decay. The optical emission, on the other hand, shows no break across the X-ray steep decrease, and the late-time decays of both the X-ray and optical are consistent. Using both the X-ray and optical data, we show that the emission after similar to 10(5) s can be explained well by the FS model. We model our data to derive the kinetic energy of the ejecta and thus measure the efficiency of the central engine of a GRB with emission of internal origin visible for a long time. Furthermore, we break down the energy budget of this GRB into the prompt emission, the late internal dissipation, the kinetic energy of the relativistic ejecta, and compare it with the energy of the associated supernova, SN 2013 fu.
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    THE FIRST SIMULTANEOUS MICROLENSING OBSERVATIONS BY TWO SPACE TELESCOPES: SPITZER AND SWIFT REVEAL A BROWN DWARF IN EVENT OGLE-2015-BLG-1319
    (2016) Shvartzvald, Y.; Li, Z.; Udalski, A.; Gould, A.; Sumi, T.; Street, R. A.; Novati, S. Calchi; Hundertmark, M.; Bozza, V.; Beichman, C.; Bryden, G.; Carey, S.; Drummond, J.; Fausnaugh, M.; Gaudi, B. S.; Henderson, C. B.; Tan, T. G.; Wibking, B.; Pogge, R. W.; Yee, J. C.; Zhu, W.; Tsapras, Y.; Bachelet, E.; Dominik, M.; Bramich, D. M.; Cassan, A.; Jaimes, R. Figuera; Horne, K.; Ranc, C.; Schmidt, R.; Snodgrass, C.; Wambsganss, J.; Steele, I. A.; Menzies, J.; Mao, S.; Poleski, R.; Pawlak, M.; Szymanski, M. K.; Skowron, J.; Mroz, P.; Kozlowski, S.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Pietrukowicz, P.; Soszynski, I.; Ulaczyk, K.; Abe, F.; Asakura, Y.; Barry, R. K.; Bennett, D. P.; Bhattacharya, A.; Bond, I. A.; Freeman, M.; Hirao, Y.; Itow, Y.; Koshimoto, N.; Li, M. C. A.; Ling, C. H.; Masuda, K.; Fukui, A.; Matsubara, Y.; Muraki, Y.; Nagakane, M.; Nishioka, T.; Ohnishi, K.; Oyokawa, H.; Rattenbury, N. J.; Saito, To.; Sharan, A.; Sullivan, D. J.; Suzuki, D.; Tristram, P. J.; Yonehara, A.; Jorgensen, U. G.; Burgdorf, M. J.; Ciceri, S.; D'Ago, G.; Evans, D. F.; Hinse, T. C.; Kains, N.; Kerins, E.; Korhonen, H.; Mancini, L.; Popovas, A.; Rabus, M.; Rahvar, S.; Scarpetta, G.; Skottfelt, J.; Southworth, J.; Peixinho, N.; Verma, P.; Sbarufatti, B.; Kennea, J. A.; Gehrels, N.
    Simultaneous observations of microlensing events from multiple locations allow for the breaking of degeneracies between the physical properties of the lensing system, specifically by exploring different regions of the lens plane and by directly measuring the "microlens parallax." We report the discovery of a 30-65M(J) brown dwarf orbiting a K dwarf in the microlensing event OGLE-2015-BLG-1319. The system is located at a distance of similar to 5 kpc toward the Galactic Bulge. The event was observed by several ground-based groups as well as by Spitzer and Swift, allowing a measurement of the physical properties. However, the event is still subject to an eight-fold degeneracy, in particular the well-known close-wide degeneracy, and thus the projected separation between the two lens components is either similar to 0.25 au or similar to 45 au. This is the first microlensing event observed by Swift, with the UVOT camera. We study the region of microlensing parameter space to which Swift is sensitive, finding that though Swift could not measure the microlens parallax with respect to ground-based observations for this event, it can be important for other events. Specifically, it is important for detecting nearby brown dwarfs and free-floating planets in high magnification events.