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[62.05] Very High Energy Observations of GRBs with the Whipple/VERITAS Telescopes

D. Horan (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), VERITAS Collaboration

Since their discovery in 1969, Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) have been well studied at all wavelengths. Observations at Very High Energies (VHE, E > 100 GeV) can impose tight constraints on some emission models. Many GRB after-glow models predict a VHE component similar to that seen in many blazars and supernova remnants, in which the GRB spectral energy distribution has a double-peaked shape extending into the VHE regime. Consistent with this scenario, EGRET detected delayed high energy emission from all five bright BATSE GRBs that occured within its field of view. GRB observations have high priority in the observation programs at both the Whipple 10m Telescope and the newly constructed VERITAS Prototype Telescope. Upper limits on the VHE emission from nine GRBs observed with the Whipple Telescope will be reported. Prompt observations of at least ten Swift GRBs should be possible each year with Whipple and VERITAS.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.