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Multicolor photometric observations in the optical band and a comprehensive study in the X-ray, gamma-ray, and radio bands are presented for GRB 181201A and its afterglow. The optical observations began $${\sim}0.5$$ day after the burst and lasted almost continuously for $${\sim}24$$ days. They were resumed after eight months, which allowed us to determine the contribution of the host galaxy to the measured fluxes and to estimate the related extinction. Such complete coverage of the light curve became possible owing to the coordinated work of a network of nine telescopes worldwide. Convincing evidence of an incipient supernova explosion at the location of the burst source was obtained at the end of the first series of observations. Thus, GRB 181201A became yet another event that confirmed the association of gamma-ray bursts with supernovae. Thirty such events based on photometric observations of burst afterglows were known before it. A comparison of the supernova-induced excess emission in the light curve of the afterglow from GRB 181201A with other events has allowed some of the supernova parameters to be determined.

We present very early ground-based optical follow-up observations of GRB~140423A, which was discovered by \emph{Swift}/BAT and by {\it Fermi}/GBM. Its broadband afterglow was monitored by {\it Swift}/XRT and ground-based optical telescopes from $T_0+$70.96~s to 4.8~d after the {\it Swift}/BAT trigger. This is one more case of prompt optical emission observation. The temporal and spectral joint fit of the multiwavelength light curves of GRB 140423A reveals that achromatic behavior is consistent with the external shock model including a transition from a stellar wind to the interstellar medium (ISM) and energy injection. In terms of the optical light curves, there is an onset bump in the early afterglow with a rising index $\alpha_{\rm O,I} = -0.59 \pm 0.04$ (peaking at $t_{\rm peak}-T_0 \approx 206$~s). It then decays with a steep index $\alpha_{\rm O,II} = 1.78 \pm 0.03$, and shows a steeper to flatter "transition" with $\alpha_{\rm O,III} = 1.13 \pm 0.03$ at around $T_0 + 5000$~s. The observed X-ray afterglow reflects an achromatic behavior, as does the optical light curve. There is no obvious evolution of the spectral energy distribution between the X-ray and optical afterglow, with an average value of the photon index $\Gamma \approx 1.95$. This "transition" is consistent with an external shock model having the circumburst medium transition from a wind to the ISM, by introducing a long-lasting energy injection with a Lorentz factor stratification of the ejecta. The best parameters from Monte Carlo Markov Chain fitting are $E_{\rm K,iso} \approx 2.14\times10^{55}$ erg, $\Gamma_0 \approx 162$, $\epsilon_e \approx 0.02$, $\epsilon_B \approx 1.7\times10^{-6}$, $A_\ast \approx 1.0$, $R_t \approx 4.1\times10^{17}$ cm, $n \approx 11.0 \rm\ cm^{-3}$, $L_0 \approx 3.1\times10^{52} \rm\ erg\ s^{-1}$, $k \approx 1.98$, $s \approx 1.54$, and $\theta_j > 0.3$ rad., Comment: 30 pages, 6 fiures; Accepted for publication in ApJ

The problem of searching for optical counterparts of gravitational wave LIGO/Virgo events is discussing. Multi-messenger astronomy boosts the use a huge amount of astronomical data obtained by virtually all observatories around the world. We are discussing different tactics used for observations, problem of search for transients in the extremely large localization error-box of LIGO/Virgo events, and lessons obtained during second observational run of LIGO/Virgo in 2017. In particular we present our experience and results of follow up observations of LIGO/Virgo optical counterpart candidates by Space Research Institute (IKI) Gamma-Ray Bursts Follow up Network (IKI-GRB-FuN).

We investigate the prompt emission and the afterglow properties of short-duration gamma-ray burst (sGRB) 130603B and another eight sGRB events during 2012-2015, observed by several multiwavelength facilities including the Gran Canarias Telescope 10.4 m telescope. Prompt emission high energy data of the events were obtained by INTEGRAL-SPI-ACS, Swift-BAT, and Fermi-GBM satellites. The prompt emission data by INTEGRAL in the energy range of 0.1-10 MeV for sGRB 130603B, sGRB 140606A, sGRB 140930B, sGRB 141212A, and sGRB 151228A do not show any signature of the extended emission or precursor activity and their spectral and temporal properties are similar to those seen in case of other short bursts. For sGRB 130603B, our new afterglow photometric data constrain the pre-jet-break temporal decay due to denser temporal coverage. For sGRB 130603B, the afterglow light curve, containing both our new and previously published photometric data is broadly consistent with the ISM afterglow model. Modeling of the host galaxies of sGRB 130603B and sGRB 141212A using the LePHARE software supports a scenario in which the environment of the burst is undergoing moderate star formation activity. From the inclusion of our late-time data for eight other sGRBs we are able to: place tight constraints on the non-detection of the afterglow, host galaxy, or any underlying 'kilonova' emission. Our late-time afterglow observations of the sGRB 170817A/GW170817 are also discussed and compared with the sub-set of sGRBs.© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society, AJCT acknowledges support from the Junta de Andalucia (Project P07-TIC-03094) and support from the Spanish Ministry Projects AYA2012-39727-C03-01 and 201571718R. This work has been supported by the Spanish Science Ministry 'Centro de Excelencia SeveroOchoa' Program under grant SEV-2017-0709. FEDER funds are acknowledged. E.S. acknowledges assistance from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) through project 112T224. We thank TUBITAK for a partial support in using T100 telescope with project number 10CT100-95. A.S.P acknowledges partial support grants RFBR 17-02-01388, 17-51-44018, and 1752-80139. E.D.M., A.A.V., and P.Yu.M. are grateful to RSCF grant 18-12-00522 for support. B.-B.Z. acknowledges support from National Thousand Young Talents program of China and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0404204). R.Ya.I. is grateful for partial support by the grant RUSTAVELI/FR/379/6-300/14. R.S.R. acknowledges support from ASI (Italian Space Agency) through the Contract No. 2015-046R.0 and from European Union Horizon 2020 Programme under the AHEAD project (grant agreement No. 654215). SJ acknowledges the support of the Korea Basic Science Research Program through NRF-2015R1D1A4A01020961.

Open Access.--14th Marcel Grossman Meeting On Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories; University of Rome "La Sapienza"Rome; Italy; 12 July 2015 through 18 July 2015; Code 142474.-- http://www.icra.it/mg/mg14/, Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the brightest explosions in the universe, yet the properties of their energy sources are far from understood. Very important clues, however, can be deduced by studying the afterglows of these events. We present observations of GRB 130831A and its afterglow obtained with Swift, Chandra, and multiple ground-based observatories. This burst shows an uncommon drop in the X-ray light curve at about 100 ks after the trigger, with a decay slope of α 7. The standard Forward Shock (FS) model offers no explanation for such a behaviour. Instead, a model in which a newly born magnetar outflow powers the early X-ray emission is found to be viable. After the drop, the X-ray afterglow resumes its decay with a slope typical of FS emission. The optical emission, on the other hand, displays no clear break across the X-ray drop and its decay is consistent with that of the late X-rays. Using both the X-ray and optical data, we show that the FS model can explain the emission after 100 ks. We model our data to infer the kinetic energy of the ejecta and thus estimate the efficiency of a magnetar “central engine” of a GRB. Furthermore, we break down the energy budget of this GRB into prompt emission, late internal dissipation, kinetic energy of the relativistic ejecta, and compare it with the energy of the accompanying supernova, SN 2013fu. Copyright © 2018 by the Editors.All rights reserved.

The ejecta composition is an open question in gamma-ray burst (GRB) physics . Some GRBs possess a quasi-thermal spectral component in the time-resolved spectral analysis , suggesting a hot fireball origin. Others show a featureless non-thermal spectrum known as the Band function , consistent with a synchrotron radiation origin and suggesting that the jet is Poynting-flux dominated at the central engine and probably in the emission region as well . There are also bursts showing a sub-dominant thermal component and a dominant synchrotron component , suggesting a probable hybrid jet composition . Here, we report an extraordinarily bright GRB 160625B, simultaneously observed in gamma-ray and optical wavelengths, whose prompt emission consists of three isolated episodes separated by long quiescent intervals, with the durations of each sub-burst being approximately 0.8 s, 35 s and 212 s, respectively. Its high brightness (with isotropic peak luminosity L ≈ 4 × 10 erg s) allows us to conduct detailed time-resolved spectral analysis in each episode, from precursor to main burst and to extended emission. The spectral properties of the first two sub-bursts are distinctly different, allowing us to observe the transition from thermal to non-thermal radiation between well-separated emission episodes within a single GRB. Such a transition is a clear indication of the change of jet composition from a fireball to a Poynting-flux-dominated jet., B.-B.Z. thanks Y.-Z. Fan, Y.-Z. Wang, H. Wang, K. D. Alexander and D. Lazzati for helpful discussions. We are grateful to K. Hurley, I. Mitrofanov, A. Sanin, M. Litvak and W. Boynton for the use of Mars Odyssey data in the triangulation. We acknowledge the use of the public data from the Swift and Fermi data archives. B.-B. Z. and A.J. C.-T. acknowledge support from the Spanish Ministry Projects AYA2012-39727-C03-01 and AYA2015-71718-R. Part of this work made use of B.-B.Z.'s personal Interactive Data Language (IDL) code library ZBBIDL and personal Python library ZBBPY. The computation resources used in this work are owned by Scientist Support LLC. B.Z. acknowledges NASA NNX14AF85G and NNX15AK85G for support. Z. G. D. acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) (grant 11573014). Y.-D. H. acknowledges support by China Scholarships Council (grant 201406660015). Mini-MegaTORTORA belongs to Kazan Federal University, and the work is performed according to the Russian Government Program of Competitive Growth of Kazan Federal University. A. P., E.M., P. M. and A.V. are grateful to the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant 17-02-01388) for partial support. A. P. and S.B.P. acknowledge joint BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grant RFBR 17-52-80139 and 388-ProFChEAP for partial support. R. I. is grateful to grant RUSTAVELI FR/379/6300/ 14 for partial support. Observations on Mini-MegaTORTORA are supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 14-50-00043). A.V.F. and A. M. thank the Russian Science Foundation (grant 14-50-00043). L.M. and A.F.Z. acknowledge support from INTA-CEDEA ESAt personnel hosting the Pi of the Sky facility at the BOOTES-1 station. H. G. and X.-Y.W. acknowledge NSFC (grants 11603003 and 11625312, respectively). Z. G. D., X.-F. W., B.Z., X.-Y. W.,L.S. and F.-W.Z. are also supported by the 973 program (grant 2014CB845800). F.-W.Z. is also supported in part by the NSFC (grants U1331101 and 11163003), the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation (grant 2013GXNSFAA019002) and the project of outstanding young teachers' training in higher education institutions of Guangxi. L.S. acknowledges support by the NSFC (grant 11103083) and the Joint NSFC-ISF Research Program (grant 11361140349). S.O. acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust. S.J. acknowledges support from Korea Basic Science Research Program through NRF-2014R1A6A3A03057484 and NRF-2015R1D1A4A01020961, and I. H. P. through NRF-2015R1A2A1A01006870 and NRF-2015R1A2A1A15055344. R. A., D. F. and D. S. acknowledge support from RSF (grant 17-12-01378). A. K. acknowledges the Science and Education Ministry of Kazakhstan (grant 0075/GF4).

We present optical observations of SN 2013dx, related to the Fermi burst GRB 130702A occurred at a redshift z = 0.145. It is the second-best sampled GRB-SN after SN~1998bw: the observational light curves contain more than 280 data points in uBgrRiz filters until 88 day after the burst, and the data were collected from our observational collaboration (Maidanak Observatory, Abastumani Observatory, Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Mondy Observatory, National Observatory of Turkey, Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos) and from the literature. We model numerically the multicolour light curves using the one-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical code STELLA, previously widely implemented for the modelling of typical non-GRB SNe. The best-fitted model has the following parameters: pre-supernova star mass M = 25 M_Sun, mass of a compact remnant M_CR = 6 M_Sun, total energy of the outburst E_oburst = 3.5 x 10^(52) erg, pre-supernova star radius R = 100 R_Sun, M_56Ni = 0.2 M_Sun which is totally mixed through the ejecta; M_O = 16.6 M_Sun, M_Si = 1.2 M_Sun, and M_Fe = 1.2 M_Sun, and the radiative efficiency of the SN is 0.1 per cent., 14 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables, accepted to MNRAS

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions in the universe, yet the nature and physical properties of their energy sources are far from understood. Very important clues, however, can be inferred by studying the afterglows of these events. We present optical and X-ray observations of GRB 130831A obtained by Swift, Chandra, Skynet, RATIR, Maidanak, ISON, NOT, LT and GTC. This burst shows a steep drop in the X-ray light-curve at $\simeq 10^5$ s after the trigger, with a power-law decay index of $\alpha \sim 6$. Such a rare behaviour cannot be explained by the standard forward shock (FS) model and indicates that the emission, up to the fast decay at $10^5$ s, must be of "internal origin", produced by a dissipation process within an ultrarelativistic outflow. We propose that the source of such an outflow, which must produce the X-ray flux for $\simeq 1$ day in the cosmological rest frame, is a newly born magnetar or black hole. After the drop, the faint X-ray afterglow continues with a much shallower decay. The optical emission, on the other hand, shows no break across the X-ray steep decrease, and the late-time decays of both the X-ray and optical are consistent. Using both the X-ray and optical data, we show that the emission after $\simeq 10^5$ s can be explained well by the FS model. We model our data to derive the kinetic energy of the ejecta and thus measure the efficiency of the central engine of a GRB with emission of internal origin visible for a long time. Furthermore, we break down the energy budget of this GRB into the prompt emission, the late internal dissipation, the kinetic energy of the relativistic ejecta, and compare it with the energy of the associated supernova, SN 2013fu., Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS. 21 pages, 3 figures, 8 tables. Extra table with magnitudes in the source

In the version of this Letter originally published, the letter i was mistakenly omitted from the surname of the author R. Sanchez-Ramirez. This has now been corrected.