Crude Limits on Prior and Prompt Optical Emission from GRBs from the CONCAM Global Network

1. Crude Limits on Prior and Prompt Optical Emission from GRBs from the CONCAM Global Network Robert J. Nemiroff, Dolores Pérez-Ramírez, Daniel Cordell (Michigan Technological University) & the CONCAM Collaboration

2. Faculty Robert Nemiroff (Michigan Tech, PI) J. Bruce Rafert (Michigan Tech) Noah Brosch (Tel Aviv U.) Chris Impey (Arizona) John Oliver (U. Florida) Postdocs (partial time) Wellesley E. Pereira (Michigan Tech) Andre Phillips (Siding Spring Obs.) Dolores Perez-Ramirez (ESA) http://concam.net System Manager Dave Torrey (Michigan Tech) Graduate Student Lior Shamir (Michgian Tech) Undergraduate Students Dan Corell (Michigan Tech) Andrew Fleming (Michgan Tech) Kristie Walivaara (Michigan Tech) H. Nishimura (Michigan Tech) many others have helped the CONCAM project in many ways. The CONCAM CollaborationPeople

3. The CONCAM ProjectInstitutional Collaborators and Support • Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona, USA • Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii,USA • Wise Observatory, Israel • European Northern Observatory, Canary Islands, Spain • South Africa Large Telescope, South Africa • Siding Springs Observatory, Australia • Mt. Wilson Observatory, California, USA • Rosemary Hill Observatory, Florida, USA • NASA (KPNO RMT) • NSF (CAREER, CCLI, ITR, and RUE) • Michigan Space Grant Consortium • Michigan Technological University

4. Abstract • The global CONtinuous CAMera (CONCAM) network of nighttime fisheye web-cameras monitor most of the night sky most of the time down to a limiting visual magnitude as faint as 7. Several times, now, a CONCAM has cleanly recorded the position of a GRB at trigger time. So far, however, no optical transient has been bright enough to be recorded by a CONCAM. Several interesting and example cases are shown and discussed. • All images recorded by CONCAMs are available in real time at http://concam.net . All CONCAM data is placed immediately in the public domain.

5. Site-snapshots of 4 Current CONCAMs Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona Mt. Wilson Observatory, California Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii Wise Observatory, Israel

6. The CONCAM Global Network • Asterisks denote operational CONCAMs • CONCAMs support many of the world’s major observatories. • CONCAMs now view most of the night sky, most of the time.

7. The CONCAM Project’s Three Primary Objectives • Primary Science • Real-time web-accessible temporal monitoring for GRB OTs, meteors, variable stars, comets, novae, supernovae, etc. • Support Science • Ability to act as instantaneous cloud monitors, archival cloud monitors, generate all-sky transparency maps, all-sky emissivity maps in support of many major observatories around the globe. • Education / Outreach • Ability to show your class last night’s (real) sky, archival skies, monitor meteor showers in real time, show educational sky movies, run educational modules

8. Do bright optical flashes accompany GRBs? • In recent works, there have been found theoretical reasons to expect strong optical flashes to precede the main part of some -ray bursts. Meszaros et al (2001) and Belobodorov (2001) suggested a standard GRB model that includes the possibility of generation of a low energy precursor to the proper GRB. Paczyński (2001) and Kumar & Panaitescu (2001) predicted the possibility of generation of a strong optical flash preceding the main GRB. Here we search for prompt emission at the time of the GRB trigger as recorded by HETE II or the IPN, regardless of theoretical justification. • A bright optical transient surely accompanied GRB 990123, which appeared at visual magnitude 9 in a 5 second exposure that started 25 seconds after the gamma-ray trigger (Akerlof & McKay, IAUC 7100). Other prompt bright afterglows include GRB 021211 and GRB 030329, the later of which may have become as bright as visual magnitude 3 (Ofek et al., GCN 2031).

9. HD 223075 as a GRB prototype • There are evidences that point that GRBs could be extremely red with R-I  2.8 (Fruchter 1999, Reichart 1998, Reichart et al. 1998) • Our approach for studying the upper limits consisted in studying the changes in magnitude of a very red star,  Pisces (HD 223075, V = 5.01, R-I = 2.59) used as a prototype star visible in our field of view, measuring its changes in brightness as it moves from the center to the edge.

10. CONCAM crude optical limits on GRB 001005: GCN Circular #842 The correspondent frames found in our archive that bracket the time reported for this GRB, 03:25:09 UT, (Hurley et al GCN 838) were recorded at 03:21:35 UT (before the event), 03:25:14 UT (closer to the end) and 03:28:42 UT (after the event). About 100s of dead time follows each 120s integration. We note that although the Moon was in the field, the position of GRB001005 was relatively unaffected. This position is placed on the east edge of the CONCAM field. Clouds and internal moonlight reflections occasionally degrade the image, mostly during the beginning of the night. No obvious optical counterpart down to about visual magnitude 4 over a two minute exposure was visible on the frames. Error Box within the location of the GRB

11. CONCAM’s null results during GRB 010126: GCN Circular #927 We found in our archive a relevant CONCAM frame which contained an integration from 33022s (09:10:22 UT) to 33202s (09:13:22 UT) that brackets 33048s (09:10:48 UT), the time of the GRB reported by Hurley et al. (GCN 922). Thus, we examined three key frames corresponding to times right before, during and after the GRB. The time recorded on the frames was behind the actual UT time by about 26s. We corrected for this resulting an uncertainty of about 2s. For these frames, the integration time was three-minutes exposure. No obvious counterpart down to about visual magnitude 6.3 was visible on the frames. This is to the best of our knowledge, the first time an optical electronic instrument was observing a GRB location during a GRB trigger. Error Box within the location of the GRB Before: 09:02:55 UTC During: 09:10:48 UTC After: 09:14:50 UTC

12. CONCAM’s null result during GRB 030329: GCN Circular #2031 This GRB occurred near the center of the Mauna Kea CONCAM field and near the edge of the Mt. Wilson CONCAM field and the Kitt Peak CONCAM field. Unfortunately, the Mauna Kea CONCAM was turned off during the day to fix a charge accumulation problem on the MK CCD, and the MK field operators forgot to turn it back on until the following day. The MW CONCAM did not record useful information at that field edge due to the bright lights of the city of Los Angeles. The best images came from the Kitt Peak CONCAM. The Michigan Tech group searched the fields but did not detect anything and decided not to issue a GCN circular. Astronomers at Tel Aviv University did their own search on http://concam.net data, achieved similar results, and due to the free and public domain nature of CONCAM data issued their own GCN Circular (Ofek et al., GCN 2031). Three 180 s CONCAM images were taken at Mar 29, 11:29:57, 11:33:52, and 11:41:46 UT bracketing the burst time of March 29, 11:37:14 (Ricker et al., HETE II)and although not directly incorporating the trigger time, the second cited integration ended only 17 seconds before the HETE trigger. The three images are shown below. The limiting visual magnitude is about 3.5. Approximate location of the GRB 030329 Before: 11:29:57 UT Ending 17s Before After: 11:41:46 UT

13. Two concurrent cases from 2003:Top: GRB 030328: No concurrent OT to V~5Bottom: GRB 030528; no concurrent OT to V~3.5

14. References • Beloborodov, A.M., 2001, astro-ph/0103321 • Fruchter, A., 1999, ApJ, 512, L1 • Kumar, P. & Panaitescu, A., 2001, in preparation • Meszaros, P., Ramírez-Ruiz, E. & Rees, M.J., 2001, ApJ, 554, 668 • Paczyński, B., 2001, astro-ph/0108522 • Reichart, D.E., 1998, ApJ, 495, L99 • Reichart, D.E, Lamb, D.Q., Metzger, M.R., Quashnock, J.M., Cole, D.M., Castander, F.J., Cooray, A.R. & Vanden Berk, D.E., 1998, astro-ph/9806082 • GCN #810 R.J. Nemiroff, D. Pérez-Ramírez, J.B. Rafert, W.E. Pereira, C. Ftaclas, J. Fernández • GCN #842 R.J. Nemiroff, D. Pérez-Ramírez, W.E. Pereira, J.B. Rafert, C. Ftaclas, J. Fernández • GCN #927 R.J. Nemiroff, D. Pérez-Ramírez, W.E. Pereira, J.B. Rafert, C. Ftaclas, J. Fernández