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Accession Number
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N20120012976
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Title
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Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations.
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Publication Date
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2012
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Media Count
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8p
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Personal Author
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A. Dietz A. S. Stroeer G. M. Guidi J. Cannizzo J. B. Camp L. Blackburn M. Was M. A. Bizouard
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Abstract
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We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at the distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed gamma-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30. we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with > 99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81 our findings support the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it the most distant extragalactic magnetar observed to date.
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Keywords
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Gamma ray astronomy
Gamma ray bursts
Gravitational waves
Laser interferometry
Ligo(Observatory)
Magnetars
Soft gamma repeaters
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Source Agency
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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NTIS Subject Category
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54B - Astronomy & Celestial Mechanics
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Corporate Author
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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD.
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Document Type
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Journal article
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Title Note
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N/A
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NTIS Issue Number
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1303
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Contract Number
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N/A
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