A Fundamental Test of the GRB Fireball Model

该小组将使用斯隆数字巡天（SDSS），一个大型的5种颜色的自动化调查，寻找可能是产生伽马射线爆发（GRB）的恒星爆炸的“孤儿余辉”的物体，强烈的伽马射线短暂爆发。 伽马射线是如此强烈，并且在如此短的时间内到达，以至于它们可能被集中成一个狭窄的光束。 当光束没有指向我们的方向时，我们会看到光学增亮，但没有伽马射线：一个“孤儿余辉”。 麦克纳马拉博士的小组将集中在300平方度的天空，SDSS望远镜在许多个月里每隔几个晚上就会返回。 他们将检查SDSS数据库中发现的快速变亮的物体，并自动检查其中哪些类似于已知伽马射线爆发的光学行为，但没有任何伴随的伽马射线。 该小组估计，如果目前流行的“火球”模型是正确的，他们应该找到大约20个孤儿余辉。 如果没有检测到任何孤立的余辉，则表明该模型存在严重问题。McNamara博士是六个西班牙裔服务机构之一的教师，这些机构也是研究型大学。 该小组计划每年至少让2名来自代表性不足的少数民族的学生参与这项研究，而且它在这种指导方面有着良好的记录。 麦克纳马拉博士参与了新墨西哥州州立大学的一项工作，该大学为来自代表性不足的少数民族的K-12学生提供课外活动，他还为K-8教师开发了远程教育课程。 对于教师，他将制定课程计划，纳入新墨西哥州的公立学校标准，让学生识别突出的可变天文物体。

The group will use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a large automated survey in 5 colors, to search for objects that might be 'orphan afterglows' of the stellar explosions that produce gamma ray bursts (GRB), intense short-lived bursts of gamma rays. The gamma rays are so intense, and arrive over such a short time, that they are probably concentrated into a narrow beam. When the beam is not pointed in our direction, we would see an optical brightening but no gamma rays: an 'orphan afterglow'. Dr. McNamara's group will concentrate on 300 square degrees of the sky to which the SDSS telescope has returned every few nights over many months. They will examine the SDSS database of objects that have been found to brighten rapidly, and examine automatically which of these resemble the optical behavior of known gamma-ray bursts, but without any accompanying gamma rays. The group estimates that if the currently-popular 'fireball' model is correct, they should find roughly 20 orphan afterglows. Failure to detect any orphan afterglows would indicate serious problems with the model. Dr. McNamara is on the faculty of one of the six Hispanic-Serving Institutions that are also Research I universities. The group plans to involve at least 2 students from under-represented minorities each year in this research, and it has a strong record of such mentorship. Dr. McNamara is involved in an effort at New Mexico State University that provides after-school programs to K-12 students from under-represented minorities, and he has developed distance-education classes for K-8 teachers. For the teachers, he will develop lesson plans incorporating New Mexico's public school standards that allow students to identify prominent variable astronomical objects.