High Resolution Observations of GRB 030329

Taylor, Greg
Frail, Dale
Berger, Edo
Kulkarni, Shri

Publication date

September 2004

Publisher

AIP Publishing

Abstract

The nearby (z=0.1685) gamma-ray burst of 29 March 2003 has presented us with a unique opportunity to study an event with unprecedented physical resolution. This burst reached flux density levels at centimeter wavelengths more than 50 times brighter than any previously studied event. Here we present the results of VLBI observations that have resolved the radio afterglow, and constrain its proper motion in the sky to <0.3 mas. The size of the afterglow is measured to be ~0.08 mas 24 days after the burst, consistent with expectations of the standard fireball model. In observations taken 51 days after the burst we detect an additional compact, "jet", component at a distance from the main component of 0.28 ± 0.05 mas. The presence of this jet co...