[vsnet-grb-info 20938] GRB 18020B long follow up requested

[GCN Circulars]

TITLE:   GCN CIRCULAR
NUMBER:  23036
SUBJECT: GRB 18020B long follow up requested 
DATE:    18/07/25 08:52:55 GMT
FROM:    Arnon Dar at Technion-Israel Inst. of Tech  <arnon at physics.technion.ac.il>

Long follow up of the afterglow of the extremely bright GRB
180720B (Swift-BAT detection: Siegel et al., GCN #22973, GCN
#22975; Fermi-LAT detection: Bissaldi and Racusin, GCN #22980;
Fermi-GBM detection: Roberts et al., GCN #22981; Konus Wind
detection: Frederiks et al. GCN 230110) is urged. It will provide
another critical test of GRB theories. Its  current late-time X-ray
afterglow, measured with Swift XRT, decays like a single power-law
with a temporal index alpha=1.34+/-0.01 and an unabsorbed spectral
index beta=0.82+/-0.04 (Evans et al. Swift-XRT GRB lightcurve
repository). It satisfies well the Cannonball model closure relation
alpha=beta+1/2 (e.g., Dado and Dar, PhRvD, 94, 3007 (2016)) for
the late time unabsorbed afterglows of SN-GRBs (while those of
SN-less GRBs satisfy alpha=2,  e.g., Dado and Dar arXiv:1807.08726).
An SN akin to SN1998bw may be resolved from the optical afterglows
around day ~15. An achromatic break in the late time afterglow
is expected only if the host galaxy is aligned  near face on.