John Nousek Penn State University

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John Nousek (Penn State University) Neil Gehrels
(Goddard Space Flight Center)
International Workshop on Astronomical X-ray
Optics - Prague, Czech Rep. 6-9 Dec. 2009
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Swift launch 20 Nov 2004 !!
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5th Anniversary of Swift Conference

• Celebration of Swift held at Penn State, 18-20
  Nov. 2009
• Attracted more than 150 participants 1/3 Penn
  State, 1/3 US 1/3 from ten other countries
• Discussed impact of Swift on areas of
  astrophysics, and planned for future developments
  and science direction of the Swift Observatory

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Swift GRB Science

• Swift has redefined the field of GRB science.
• ??? GRB backgroud
• ??? Swift comparisons
• Duration
• Host galaxies
• Distance distributions
• Energetics
• Beaming

ARAA Annual Reviews 2009 Gehrels, Ramirez-Ruiz
and Fox
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GRB Properties
Two types Short GRBs (t lt 2s) Long GRBs (t
gt 2s) Redshift range 0.2 - 2 SGRBs
0.009 - 8.2 LGRBs Energy release in ?-rays
1049-1050 ergs SGRBs 1050-1051 ergs
LGRBs Jet opening angle 15 deg SGRBs 5
deg LGRBs Both types have delayed extended
high-E emission
ARAA article
GRB 990123 HST image
Fruchter et al.
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GRB Spectra
prompt
afterglow with synchrotron fit
GRB 051111
Butler et al. 2006
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VELA GRB discovery 1973
Compton / BATSE isotropy inhomogeneity 2
duration classes 1991
Compton / EGRET GeV extended emission 1994
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BeppoSAX afterglow distance 1997
Fireball Model 1997
HETE-II GRB030329 / SN2003dh XRFs 2003
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Swift Mission
3 instruments, each with - lightcurves
- images - spectra Rapid slewing
spacecraft Rapid telemetry to ground
UVOT Position - lt 1 arcsec
XRT Position - 5 arcsec
BAT Position - 2 arcmin
.
Tlt10 sec
Tlt90 sec
Tlt2 min
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475 GRB as of 1 Nov 2009 85 with X-ray
detections 60 with optical detection 155 with
redshift (41 prior to Swift) 46 short GRBs
localized (0 prior to Swift)
Swift Statistics
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XRT lightcurve
Swift GRB Data
GRB 091029
BAT lightcurve
UVOT image
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XRT lightcurve
Swift GRB Data
GRB 091029
flare
BAT lightcurve
steep-flat-medium shape
UVOT image
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ShortvsLong

Kouveliotou et al. 2003
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GRB Spectroscopy
GRB 080607
Prochaska et al. 2008
Savaglio 2006
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Blast from the past! GRB 090423

z 8.29 look back time 13.0 billion
light years
Lyman break redshifted from UV to IR
GROND Greiner et al
McMahon Tanvir
Tanvir et al. 2009 Salvaterra et al. 2009
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Evolution of Swift Operations GRBs More!

• Original prime mission 2004-2006 Swift the GRB
  Explorer
• Up to Nov. 2004 Pre-launch
• Swift primarily a GRB detection and afterglow
  followup mission
• Ground-breaking operations design allows
  immediate response to GRBs
• Automated follow-up allows introduction of new
  GRB without new schedule
• Targets of Opportunity limited to new non-Swift
  GRBs or rare events
• Expected schedule re-plans only once / month ToO
  once / week
• Planning using TAKO software / five times a week
• Prime mission 2005-2006
• Execution closely follows plans, except
• XRT TEC power supply fails, forcing operations to
  passively maintain XRT below -50 C
• Automated target process is great success
  allowing highly flexible and rapid ToO response

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Swift Operations Currently

• 1st mission extension 2006-2008 High-z GRBs
  and the GI Program
• Swift reduces time on late afterglow followup and
  increases effort on finding high redshift GRBs
• Swift introduces GI targets, followed by pressure
  for increased ToO and monitoring campaigns
• TAKO planning software modified to incorporate
  XRT temperature control other ancillary software
  improves ACS reliability
• Improved ToO automation allows multiple ToOs in
  short period without new schedule (including
  nights and week-ends)

• Targets of Opportunity and Monitoring Campaigns
  occur every day
• Typical load of 4-12 ToO or Monitoring
  observations every day

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Supernova Studies with Swift

• XRT and UVOT observations of SNe
• 66 observed to date of all types (26 Ia, 18 Ibc,
  22 II)
• UV, optical X-ray densely-sampled light curves
• Largest sample of SN light curves in the UV
• Unique UV characterizations of SN Ia's (incl UV
  spectra)

SN 2006bp (Type IIP)
Supernova Lightcurves
Immler et al. 2007 Brown et al. 2008
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X-Ray SN Studies
- XRT observations probe SNe
environments mass-loss rates - Signature of
SN shock traveling through dense shell -
Shells are outer H/He-rich layers from
Luminous Blue Variable phase
SN 2006bp
Immler et al.
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SN 2008D Shock Breakout
SN 2007uy
- XRT monitoring of NGC 2770 (27 Mpc)
revealed extremely luminous X-ray outburst - EX
2x1046 ergs - No BAT, no radio late gtgt
probably no jets - UVOT detection of SN rising
90 min later - SN Ib/c - Shock breakout. May
occur for all SN
9 Jan 2008
Soderberg et al. 2008
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Nova Studies with Swift
Thermonuclear detonation of accumulated accretion
on white dwarf

• - 25 novae observed
• - Rise and fall of few keV emission from
• shocked ejecta
• - Super-Soft emission in some from
• WD surface (kTBB 30 eV)
• - Extensive observations of RS Oph 2006
• (400 ksec) revealed unexpected
• luminous SSS state and 35 sec QPO
• - Earth mass ejected at 4000 km/s into wind of
  companion Red Giant

1.6 kpc
RS Oph
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Swift Trigger on Large Stellar Flare

• BAT triggered on a stellar flare from nearby (d5
  pc) EV Lac (dM3e, Prot 4 days)
• XRT spectra show Fe K 6.4 keV emission first for
  an active dMe star
• UVOT enhancement large but unknown instrument
  safed at gt200,000 counts/s
• Brightest stellar flare observed
• Erad 1038 erg
• EV Lac is young magnetically active isolated
  star.
• Previous super-flare was from binary RS CVn
  system, II Peg

Osten et al 2007, 2008
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BAT Sky Monitoring
SWIFT J1816.7-1613
4U 0115634
Newly discovered source (Atel 1456)
Known pulsar in outburst (Atel 1426)
536 sources monitored 65 detectable on a
daily basis 60 with gt 30 mcrab outbursts 15
mCrab sensitivity in 1 day
Krimm et al
http//swift.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/swift/results/tran
sients/
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TOOs for Transients GRBs
- Swift can perform rapid X-ray and optical
observations of transients - TOO rapidly
uploaded as RA DEC. Response time is lt1 hour
to 1 day - Web page for TOO requests
http//www.swift.psu.edu/too.html - Duty
scientists always on call for urgent TOOs - New
"command from home" mode for after-hour TOOs -
Expert international teams provide rapid
advice GRB follow-up (48 members)
Supernova (22 members) CVs novae (24
members) Hard X-ray survey (18 members)
AGN (4 members) GeV and TeV ?-rays (4
members) - Daily planning telecon to decide
schedules
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Swift Operations Ahead

• 2nd mission extension 2009-2011 Swift the ToO
  Observatory
• Swift executes 70-75 separate pointings per day
• Each pointing is planned, although significant
  labor by human science planner to have each
  pointing a different target
• Under an initiative approved by 2008 Senior
  Review, MOC has conducted an Automation
  Initiative to streamline science planning
• Elements include
• Target management database MySQL database to
  automatically ingest target information from ToO
  requests, target lists from GI approved proposals
  and GRB information from GCN circulars
• More highly automated TAKO software will allow
  higher automation to XRT temperature control and
  ACS slew behavior
• Goal is to allow faster, easier science planning,
  with capability to increase GI monitoring
  campaigns and rapid ToO response to large numbers
  of targets

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Conclusions

• Swift has delivered a remarkably successful
  science mission to date, powered by an innovative
  operations concept that has continued to evolve
  as driven by scientific interest
• The latest changes will enable an even more
  responsive observatory, giving more GI monitoring
  and ToO responsiveness
• For Senior Review 2010, How do you suggest ways
  to use Swift, and how is that important for
  astrophysics?

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Cosmic Timeline Early Universe Probes
z0
z12
z5
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Hint That These Probes Work
z6.29
z6.28
GRB 050904
SDSS Quasar
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We Need Higher Redshift Observations

• Swift SDSS only probed the very near edge of
  reionization
• We need a statistically significant sample that
  probes well into the epoch of reionization
• We need to find 30-50 GRBs from 5ltzlt12
• 10x what Swift found (5ltzlt7)
• We need to find 200-400 quasars from 6ltzlt10
• 10x all zgt6 quasars found (6ltzlt6.5)

z12
z5
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Current Capabilities Needs

• Current capabilities from Swift SDSS needed to
  observe high redshift objects are
• Rapid localization and observations of GRBs
• Rapid notifications to enable observations by
  other facilities
• A very large field of view for finding GRBs
  quasars
• BREADTH versus Depth for rare objects (Critical)
• To probe high redshift objects we need
• Greater sensitivity to high redshift bursts
• Redshifted gamma-ray photons into the X-ray
• Prompt, uniform follow-up of afterglows in the IR
  (Critical)
• Rapid redshift determination (in minutes)
• Observations above the atmosphere are essential
  to eliminate terrestrial lines that confuse
  surveys

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The Solution JANUS
1960
1980
2000
1960
1970
2020
1980
1990
2000
2010
BCD
DEF
GHI
ABC
JKL RST VWX XYZ
TUV
Testing
Increasing Capabilities
Support
Space Network
X-Ray Flash Monitor (XRFM) Detects localizes
high-z GRBs 1-20 keV, 4 sr field-of-view
Near-IR Telescope (NIRT) High-z GRB quasar
spectroscopy 0.7-1.7 µm, 1? pos, redshifts, 0.36
degree2 field-of-view,
Spacecraft Rapid communication w/ ground, rapid
slewing (50/100 sec), stable platform
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JANUS Mission Concept Sky Survey Mode
400 quasars
20,000 square degree Survey
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JANUS Mission Concept GRB Mode
50 GRBs
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JANUS Objectives

• Determine star formation history
• by using 50 GRBs
• Explore the coevolution of galaxies black holes
  
• by using 400 quasars
• Determine if dominant source of reionization