PROMPT Phase II: Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes

PROMPT 第二阶段：伽马射线暴作为探测器

• 批准号: 0440793
• 负责人: Daniel Reichart
• 金额: $ 17.62万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-01 至 2006-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0440793&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PROMPT; Phase; II; Gamma; Ray

Proposal: AST-0440793Principal Investigator: Daniel ReichartInstitution: University of North Carolina Chapel HillTitle: PROMPT Phase II: Gamma-Ray Bursts as ProbesABSTRACT:PROMPT is an instrument acquisition program that will enable the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to probe the physics, environments, and diversity of gamma-ray bursts and use them to probe the early universe in new and powerful ways. At the same time, PROMPT will be a shared resource between University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and every undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina with an astronomer or with an interest in astronomy, including historically African-American and Native-American institutions, as well as the astronomy community as a whole.INTELLECTUAL MERIT: Observations of gamma ray bursts and their environments over the past seven years now strongly indicate that at least the long-duration/soft-spectrum GRBs are the death cries of massive stars and the birth cries of black holes. Redshifts have been measured for over thirty of these objects and their implied isotropic-equivalent luminosities show them to be the biggest bangs since the Big Bang itself, beating supernovae by six to nine orders of magnitude. Given the potentially extreme brightness of their optical/near-infrared afterglows in the first seconds and minutes after the burst, rapid multi-band and spectroscopic observations of burst afterglows will not only enable astronomers to probe the physics, environments, and diversity of gamma ray bursts in new and powerful ways, but are also widely expected to be the next great probe of the early universe. PROMPT will consist of six, 0.4-meter diameter telescopes on rapidly slewing mounts that will automatically image gamma ray burst afterglows within seconds of satellite notification. PROMPT will differ from robotic telescopes that have been and are now being built to study gamma ray bursts in three ways: (1) In addition to automatically identifying the afterglow within the satellite-provided error region and measuring it at optical and near infrared wavelengths, PROMPT, with seven-band spectral coverage and four cameras, will automatically estimate the redshift of the burst from Lyman alpha and Lyman-limit dropout and the extinction curve along the line of sight within minutes of the burst; (2) PROMPT will measure the polarization history of the early-time afterglow; and (3) PROMPT will be paired with a large telescope, the 4.1-meter diameter SOAR telescope at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory that is uniquely suited to follow up PROMPT afterglows with optical and NIR spectroscopy on a similarly rapid timescale: PROMPT will leverage SOAR into a significantly more powerful facility, potentially the best in the world for probing the early universe with gamma ray bursts. BROADER IMPACTS: In addition to PROMPT being built and remotely managed primarily by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill astronomy graduate and undergraduate students, and its GRB science being carried out primarily by Chapel Hill students, PROMPT will more broadly impact education through research across North Carolina: Since gamma ray bursts will require no more than about 50% of PROMPT's time, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill will share this resource with every undergraduate institution in the state of North Carolina with an astronomer or with an interest in astronomy, including three historically minority institutions (about 20% of PROMPT's time), with Chapel Hill's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, which is already designing broad-reaching K-12 programs for PROMPT, funded by a NASA/STScI IDEAS grant (about 10% of PROMPT's time), and through a peer evaluation process the broader astronomical community (about 10% of PROMPT's time). The remaining 10% of PROMPT's time will go to non-GRB science at Chapel Hill. Also, the PI and collaborators will distribute afterglow astrometry, preliminary photometry, temporal and spectral information, and approximate redshifts and extinction curves, which PROMPT will compute in real time, to the broader gamma ray burst community through the Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network on a similarly rapid timescale. This award is being funded jointly by the Division of Astronomical Sciences and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities.

提案：AST-0440793 首席研究员：Daniel Reichart 机构：北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校 标题：PROMPT 第二阶段：伽马射线爆发作为探针 摘要：PROMPT 是一个仪器采集程序，将使北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校能够探测物理、环境和伽马射线暴的多样性，并利用它们以新的、强大的方式探测早期宇宙。 与此同时，PROMPT 将成为北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校和北卡罗来纳州每一个拥有天文学家或对天文学感兴趣的本科院校之间的共享资源，包括历史上的非裔美国人和美国原住民机构，例如以及整个天文学界。 智力价值：过去七年对伽马射线暴及其环境的观测现在强烈表明，至少长持续时间/软谱伽马暴是死亡大质量恒星的哭声和黑洞诞生的哭声。 已经对三十多个这样的天体进行了红移测量，它们隐含的各向同性等效光度表明它们是自大爆炸以来最大的爆炸，比超新星高出六到九个数量级。 考虑到爆发后最初几秒和几分钟内其光学/近红外余辉的潜在极端亮度，对爆发余辉的快速多波段和光谱观测不仅使天文学家能够探测伽马射线的物理、环境和多样性以新的、强大的方式爆发，但也被广泛期望成为早期宇宙的下一个伟大探测器。 PROMPT 将由六个安装在快速旋转支架上的直径 0.4 米的望远镜组成，这些望远镜将在卫星通知后几秒钟内自动对伽马射线暴余辉进行成像。 PROMPT 与已经和正在建造的用于研究伽马射线爆发的机器人望远镜在三个方面有所不同：（1）除了自动识别卫星提供的误差区域内的余辉并在光学和近红外波长下进行测量之外， PROMPT 具有七波段光谱覆盖范围和四个摄像头，将自动估计爆发后几分钟内莱曼阿尔法和莱曼极限丢失的爆发红移以及沿视线的消光曲线； (2) PROMPT将测量早期余辉的偏振历史； (3) PROMPT 将与一台大型望远镜配对，即托洛洛山美洲天文台的 4.1 米直径 SOAR 望远镜，该望远镜特别适合在类似的快速时间尺度上用光学和近红外光谱跟踪 PROMPT 余辉：PROMPT 将利用 SOAR一个更强大的设施，可能是世界上最好的用伽马射线爆发探测早期宇宙的设施。更广泛的影响：除了主要由北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校天文学研究生和本科生构建和远程管理以及主要由教堂山学生进行GRB科学之外，PROMPT还将通过研究对整个北卡罗来纳州的教育产生更广泛的影响：由于伽马射线暴只需要不超过 PROMPT 时间的 50% 左右，北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校将与北卡罗来纳州的每个本科院校与天文学家或对天文学感兴趣，包括三个历史上的少数机构（约占 PROMPT 时间的 20%），以及教堂山的莫尔黑德天文馆和科学中心，该中心已经在为 PROMPT 设计影响广泛的 K-12 项目，由 NASA/STScI IDEAS 资助资助（约占 PROMPT 时间的 10%），并通过更广泛的天文学界的同行评估过程（约占 PROMPT 时间的 10%）。 PROMPT 剩余 10% 的时间将用于教堂山的非伽玛暴科学。 此外，PI 和合作者将通过伽马射线爆发坐标网络，向更广泛的伽马射线爆发社区分发余辉天体测量、初步光度测量、时间和光谱信息以及近似红移和消光曲线（PROMPT 将实时计算这些信息）。同样快速的时间尺度。该奖项由天文科学部和多学科活动办公室联合资助。