Evidence that gamma-ray bursts come from massive stars, not neutron-star mergers — supernova bumps in afterglows, an HST/Keck host survey — plus JCAM, a new rapid-response imager on the Palomar 200-inch.
A contributed talk in the “Gamma Ray Bursts” oral session, following Neil Gehrels's talk on the Swift MIDEX mission.
AAS abstract 26.02, with the Caltech-NRAO-CARA GRB Collaboration.
A great deal of progress has been made in the past few years toward the determination of the nature of the progenitors of cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Though by no means definitive, the evidence points to massive stars (or “collapsars”), rather than merging neutron stars, as the culprits. I will discuss this evidence, focusing on both the late-time supernova signatures in GRB afterglows and recent results from a large HST and Keck survey. In addition, I will present work from the commissioning of JCAM, a new dual-band optical CCD imager for the Palomar 200-inch telescope designed to rapidly observe GRB afterglow.