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G. G. Williams, D. H. Hartmann (Clemson University), H. S. Park, R. A. Porrata (LLNL), LOTIS Collaboration
Observations of GRB990123 have established the existence of prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (LOTIS) has been conducting a fully automated search for this simultaneous low energy emission from GRBs since September 1996. Although LOTIS has observed many GRB error boxes, analysis has yielded only upper limits on the prompt optical emission. The unique gamma-ray properties of GRB990123, such as very large fluence, high peak flux, and hard spectrum, complicate comparisons with more typical bursts. We scale and compare gamma-ray properties from the best LOTIS events to those of GRB990123 in an attempt to determine whether the prompt optical emission of this event is representative of all GRBs. Furthermore, using LOTIS upper limits in conjunction with the relativistic blast wave model, we weakly constrain the GRB and afterglow parameters such as density of the circumburster medium and bulk Lorentz factor of the ejecta.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: ggwilli@hubcap.clemson.edu