The speaker will be Avishay Gal-Yam
Place: Holcblat Hall
Time: Wednesday, 28/Oct/2003, 14:00
Title: Optical light curves of Gamma-ray bursts
I will briefly review the accumulated knowledge about the optical light curves of the transient sources associated with Gamma-Ray Bursts. I will then focus on our own recent optical observations of GRB 030329, the closest and possibly most interesting such event. In particular, I will present densely sampled $BVRI$ light curves, the result of a coordinated observing campaign conducted at five observatories. Augmented with published observations of this GRB, the compiled optical dataset contains $2687$ photometric measurements, obtained between 78 minutes and 79 days after the burst. This dataset allows us to follow, with unprecedented detail, the photometric evolution of the transient. Properties of the optical transient and the underlying supernova will be discussed in detail.