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[45.06] Fast Rise Exponential Decay (FRED) Gamma-Ray Bursts and the Fluence Duration Bias

K. C. Young, J. Hakkila, T. W. Giblin (College of Charleston)

The fluences and durations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be systematically underestimated for low signal-to-noise ratios. This is the result of a human operator selecting a time interval shorter than the burst interval, effectively ignoring burst flux in the fluence calculation. The gradual rise and decay of the FRED-type GRBs are especially susceptible to this bias. Because of the large number of FREDs in the BATSE catalogue, a series of Monte Carlo simulations of hypothetical FREDs have been analyzed. By varying the parameters of the Norris et al. pulse model, the properties of those FREDs most susceptible to the fluence duration bias have been identified. This work is funded by NASA grant NRA-98-OSS-03 and NSF grant AST00-98499.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: hakkilaj@cofc.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.