Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) divide into two classes1: ‘long’, which typically have initial durations of T90 > 2 s, and ‘short’, with durations of T90 < 2 s (where T90 is the time to detect 90% of the observed fluence). Long bursts, which on average have softer γ-ray spectra2, are known to be associated with stellar core-collapse events—in some cases simultaneously producing powerful type Ic supernovae3,4,5. In contrast, the origin of short bursts has remained mysterious until recently. A subsecond intense ‘spike’ of γ-rays during a giant flare from the Galactic soft γ-ray repeater, SGR 1806–20, reopened an old debate over whether some short GRBs could be similar events seen in galaxies out to ∼70 Mpc (refs 6–10; redshift z ≈ 0.016). Shortly after that, localizations of a few short GRBs (with optical afterglows detected in two cases11,12) have shown an apparent association with a variety of host galaxies at moderate redshifts11,12,13,14. Here we report a correlation between the locations of previously observed short bursts and the positions of galaxies in the local Universe, indicating that between 10 and 25 per cent of short GRBs originate at low redshifts (z < 0.025).
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Norris, J. P., Cline, T. L., Desai, U. D. & Teegarden, B. J. Frequency of fast narrow gamma-ray bursts. Nature 308, 434–435 (1984)
Kouveliotou, C. et al. Identification of two classes of gamma-ray bursts. Astrophys. J. 413, L101–L104 (1993)
Woosley, S. E. Gamma-ray bursts from stellar mass accretion disks around black holes. Astrophys. J. 405, 273–277 (1993)
Hjorth, J. et al. A very energetic supernova associated with the gamma-ray burst of 29 March 2003. Nature 423, 847–850 (2003)
Stanek, K. et al. Spectroscopic discovery of the supernova 2003dh associated with GRB 030329. Astrophys. J. 591, L17–L20 (2003)
Hurley, K. et al. An exceptionally bright flare from SGR 1806–20 and the origins of short duration γ-ray bursts. Nature 434, 1098–1103 (2005)
Palmer, D. et al. A giant γ-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806–20. Nature 434, 1107–1109 (2005)
Nakar, E., Gal-Yam, A., Piran, T. & Fox, D. B. The distances to short-hard GRBs and the SGR connection. Astrophys. J. (2005)(in the press); preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph/0502148
Popov, S. B. & Stern, B. E. Soft gamma repeaters outside the Local group. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. (submitted); preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph/0503532 (2005)
Lazzati, D. A certain flare. Nature 434, 1075–1076 (2005)
Hjorth, J. et al. The optical afterglow of the short γ-ray burst GRB 050709. Nature 437, 859–861 (2005)
Berger, E. et al. The afterglow and elliptical host galaxy of the short γ-ray burst GRB 050724. Nature doi:10.1038/nature04238 (in the press); preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph/0508115 (2005).
Bloom, J. et al. Closing in on a short-hard burst progenitor: constraints from early-time optical imaging and spectroscopy of a possible host galaxy of GRB 050509b. Astrophys. J. (in the press); preprint at http://arxiv.org/astro-ph/0505480
Gehrels, N. et al. A short γ-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225. Nature 437, 851–854 (2005)
Klotz, A., Boer, M. & Atteia, J.-L. Observational constraints on the afterglow of GRB 020531. Astron. Astrophys. 404, 815–818 (2003)
Gorosabel, J. et al. Constraints on the afterglow of the short/hard burst GRB 010119. Astron. Astrophys. 383, 112–117 (2002)
Eichler, D., Livio, M., Piran, T. & Schramm, D. N. Nucleosynthesis, neutrinos and gamma-rays from coalescing neutron stars. Nature 340, 126–128 (1989)
Mochkovitch, R., Hernanz, M., Isern, J. & Martin, X. Gamma-ray bursts as collimated jets from neutron star/black hole mergers. Nature 361, 236–238 (1993)
Rosswog, S., Ramirez-Ruiz, E. & Davies, M. B. High resolution calculations of merging neutron stars III: Gamma-ray bursts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 345, 1077–1090 (2003)
Saunders, W. et al. The PSCz catalogue. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 317, 55–63 (2000)
Paciesas, W. et al. The Fourth BATSE Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog (revised). Astrophys. J. Suppl. 122, 465–495 (1999)
Briggs, M. S. et al. The error distribution of BATSE gamma-ray burst locations. Astrophys. J. 122, 503–518 (1999)
Pendleton, G. N. et al. The structure and evolution of LOCBURST: The BATSE burst location algorithm. Astrophys. J. 512, 362–376 (1999)
Hakkila, J. et al. in Gamma Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001 (eds Ricker, G. R. & Vanderspek, R. K.) 176–178 (AIP Astronomy and Astrophysics Vol. 662, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 2003)
Balazs, L. G., Meszaros, A. & Horvath, I. Anisotropy of the sky distribution of gamma-ray bursts. Astron. Astrophys. 339, 1–6 (1998)
Magliocchetti, M., Ghirlanda, G. & Celotti, A. Evidence for anisotropy in the distribution of short-lived gamma-ray bursts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 343, 255–258 (2003)
Rosswog, S. & Ramirez-Ruiz, E. On the diversity of short gamma-ray bursts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 343, L36–L40 (2003)
Kalogera, V. et al. The cosmic coalescence rates of neutron star binaries. Astrophys. J. 601, L179–L182 (2004)
Butler, N. et al. GRB050709: A possible short-hard GRB localized by HETE. GRB Circ. Netw. 3570 (2005)
Krimm, H. et al. GRB050724: Refined analysis of the Swift-BAT possible short burst. GRB Circ. Netw. 3667 (2005)
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the use of the publicly available BATSE Current Burst database. We thank M. Briggs for advice on BATSE instrumental characteristics. N.R.T., A.J.L. and R.S.P. acknowledge support from UK PPARC, and R.C. acknowledges the support of a University of Hertfordshire studentship.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Notes
Discussions regarding short burst correlations with a second galaxy catalogue, the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3), and regarding the robustness of our statistics with regard to BATSE instrumental characteristics. (DOC 25 kb)
Supplementary Figure 1
Short burst correlation with galaxies from the Third Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies (RC3). (DOC 40 kb)
Supplementary Discussion
Further discussion regarding comparisons with previous work. (DOC 23 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanvir, N., Chapman, R., Levan, A. et al. An origin in the local Universe for some short γ-ray bursts. Nature 438, 991–993 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04310
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04310
This article is cited by
-
Rapid spectral variability of a giant flare from a magnetar in NGC 253
Nature (2021)
-
GRB Observational Properties
Space Science Reviews (2016)
-
Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors
Space Science Reviews (2016)
-
Newborn magnetars as sources of gravitational radiation: constraints from high energy observations of magnetar candidates
Astrophysics and Space Science (2007)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.