Dr. Daniel Reichart of UNC Chapel Hill will expand his research involving optical follow-up of gamma-ray burst (GRB) sources discovered by the Sift satellite. UNC Chapel Hill is currently building and organizing both small (half-meter-class) robotic telescopes and large human-controlled telescopes that will allow rapid observations of GRB afterglows, continuing for weeks or months to provide a well-sampled light curve. Dr. Reichart also leads the Follow-Up Network for Gamma-Ray Bursts (FUN GRB) Collaboration, a large telescope collaboration that he helped organized in preparation for the Swift era. The award will also fund a modeling effort which focuses on GRB physics, environments, and the roles of dust extinction and gas absorption in these environments.
Students will be involved in observations using the PROMPT robotic telescope at Cerro Tololo International Observatory. Since GRBs require only a fraction of PROMPT's time, much of the remaining time will be devoted to fulfilling teaching and research objectives at twelve other North Carolina institutions, including ten undergraduate institutions ? which include historically African-American and Native-American institutions ? and Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, which is developing broad-reaching K-12 programs for these telescopes. There will also be a PROMPT Summer Fellowship Program to bring students to UNC Chapel Hill for a 12 week research experience.
