Early Optical Follow-up of Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Critical Role of Robotic Telescopes

arXiv:2606.28267 · astro-ph.HE · Submitted 2026-06-26 · Read on arXiv

Rahul Gupta, Judith Racusin, Gor Oganesyan, Ramandeep Gill, Sergey Karpov, Samantha R. Oates, Maria Gritsevich, Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, Vladimir Lipunov, Benjamin P. Gompertz, Maria Giovanna Dainotti, S. Bradley Cenko, Bing Zhang, Toktarkhan Komesh, Martin Jelínek, Stéphane Basa, Takanori Sakamoto, Carl W. Akerlof, Antonio Martin Carrillo, Sam Shilling, Ryan Seeb, Shashi B. Pandey, Varun Bhalerao, M. D. Caballero-Garcia, Ivan Panchenko, Pavel Balanutsa, Artem Kuznetsov, Kirill Zhirkov, Natalia Tyurina

astro-ph.HE

Submitted: 2026-06-26

Comments: 97 pages, 18 figures

License: http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

Terminology

• Aperture — 18× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Calibration — 11× in this paper · explained in 7 episodes
• Core — 7× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer — 7× in this paper
• Liverpool Telescope — 7× in this paper
• Physical Constraints — 5× in this paper · explained in 7 episodes
• Accuracy — 4× in this paper · explained in 1 episode
• Multi-messenger Astronomy — 4× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Trace — 3× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Consistency — 2× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• GROWTH-India Telescope — 2× in this paper
• General Coordinates Network — 2× in this paper
• Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network — 2× in this paper
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration — 2× in this paper
• Observational Selection Effects — 2× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment — 2× in this paper
• Adiabatic Evolution — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Anisotropy — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Burst Alert Robotic Telescope — 1× in this paper
• Burst Observer and Optical Transient Exploring System — 1× in this paper
• Degeneracy — 1× in this paper · explained in 3 episodes
• Dust Attenuation — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Dynamical regimes — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Legacy Survey of Space and Time — 1× in this paper
• Panchromatic Robotic Optical and Monitoring Polarimetry Telescopes — 1× in this paper
• Population Synthesis — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Rapid Eye Mount — 1× in this paper
• Temporal Correlations — 1× in this paper · explained in 2 episodes
• Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — 1× in this paper
• Virgin Islands Robotic Telescope — 1× in this paper

Sources

• The FRAM robotic telescope for atmospheric monitoring at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger
• Observation of contemporaneous optical radiation from a gamma-ray burst
• The ROTSE-III Robotic Telescope System
• Multi-epoch afterglow rebrightenings in GRB 250129A: Evidence for successive shock interactions
• Radiation-mediated shocks in gamma-ray bursts: spectral evolution
• A method for optimal image subtraction
• Implications of Joint Spectral Analysis of Gamma-Ray Bursts detected by Fermi Large Area Telescope and Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on Phenomenological Correlations
• The radio flare and multi-wavelength afterglow of the short GRB 231117A: energy injection from a violent shell collision
• Fast-transient Searches in Real Time with ZTFReST: Identification of Three Optically-discovered Gamma-ray Burst Afterglows and New Constraints on the Kilonova Rate
• Evidence of Energy Injection in the Short and Distant GRB 250221A in a High Density Environment
• Gamma rays from a reverse shock with turbulent magnetic fields in GRB 180720B
• Astropy: A Community Python Package for Astronomy
• The SVOM Mission
• GRB110721A: An extreme peak energy and signatures of the photosphere
• COLIBRI (SVOM/FM-GFT): Instrumentation and Performances on the SVOM Alerts
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• Radiation Front Sweeping the Ambient Medium of Gamma-Ray Bursts

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