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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 2(502), p. L123-L127, 1998

DOI: 10.1086/311509

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The Rapid Decay of the Optical Emission from GRB 980326 and its Possible Implications

Journal article published in 1998 by Pj J. Groot, J. J. M. in 't Zand, Tj J. Galama, Pm M. Vreeswijk, Ramj A. M. J. Wijers, E. Pian, E. Palazzi, J. van Paradijs, C. Kouveliotou, in't Zand Jjm, J. J. M. In {'}T Zand, J. Heise, C. Robinson, N. Tanvir, C. Lidman and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

We report the discovery of the optical counterpart to GRB 980326. Its rapid optical decay can be characterized by a power law with exponent -2.10 +/- 0.13 and a constant underlying source at R_c=25.5 +/- 0.5. Its optical colours 2.1 days after the burst imply a spectral slope of -0.66 +/- 0.70. The gamma-ray spectrum as observed with BATSE shows that it is among the 4% softest bursts ever recorded. We argue that the rapid optical decay may be a reason for the non-detection of some low-energy afterglows of GRBs.