A luminous blue kilonova and an off-axis jet from a compact binary merger at z = 0.1341

Journal
Date Issued
2018
Author(s)
Troja, E.
•
Ryan, G.
•
•
van Eerten, H.
•
Cenko, S. B.
•
Yoon, Y.
•
Lee, S.-K.
•
Im, M.
•
Sakamoto, T.
•
Gatkine, P.
•
Kutyrev, A.
•
Veilleux, S.
DOI
Abstract
The recent discovery of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) coincident with the gravitational-wave (GW) event GW170817 revealed the existence of a population of low-luminosity short duration gamma-ray transients produced by neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe. These events could be routinely detected by existing gamma-ray monitors, yet previous observations failed to identify them without the aid of GW triggers. Here we show that GRB150101B is an analogue of GRB170817A located at a cosmological distance. GRB150101B is a faint short burst characterized by a bright optical counterpart and a long-lived X-ray afterglow. These properties are unusual for standard short GRBs and are instead consistent with an explosion viewed off-axis: the optical light is produced by a luminous kilonova, while the observed X-rays trace the GRB afterglow viewed at an angle of 13°. Our findings suggest that these properties could be common among future electromagnetic counterparts of GW sources.
Volume
9
Issue
1
Start page
4089
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
2041-1723
Ads BibCode
2018NatCo...9.4089T
Rights
open.access
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