ISSN:
1572-946X
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Physics
Notes:
Abstract COMPTEL on board CGRO has observed a very strong (S[〉 0.3 MeV] = 2.03 × 10−4 erg cm−2), complex, and long lasting (162 s) gamma-ray burst on February 17, 1994 (GRB 940217). Temporal fluctuations occur on timescales as short as 100 ms. Hard-to-soft spectral evolution has been observed during the burst emission and also within individual peaks. The photon spectra obtained within the 6 peaks can be modelled by single power law spectra and by broken power laws with break energies at around 1 MeV. The best-fit power law slopes vary between 1.1 and 3.5 throughout the event. The burst is located at [α 2000,δ 2000] = [29.5°, 3.8°] with a 3σ error radius of 0.9°. COMPTEL does not detect any significant “post-burst” emission (as reported by EGRET) at low energies (〈 30 MeV), and our upper limits are marginally consistent with the EGRET detections. Using high energy spectral and temporal information, distance limits to GRB 940217 have been derived.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00658606
