| Name: Aditya Pawan Saikia |
| Affiliation: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay |
| Conference ID: ASI2026_400 |
| Title: Selection Effects in Optical Follow-up of Gamma-Ray Bursts Detected by Wide-Field High-Energy Missions |
| Abstract Type: Poster |
| Abstract Category: High Energy Phenomena, Fundamental Physics and Astronomy |
| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Aditya Pawan Saikia(Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai - 400076), Vishwajeet Swain(Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai - 400076), Varun Bhalerao(Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai - 400076), Ravi Kumar(School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis - 55455, United States of America), Sudhanshu Barway(Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore - 560034, India), Anupama GC(Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore - 560034, India) |
| Abstract: Wide-field gamma-ray missions such as Fermi detect a large number of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at a rate of approximately ~300 per year, providing a statistically rich sample of GRBs. However, the fraction of GRBs with detected optical afterglows remains significantly lower, primarily due to large localization uncertainties and the rapid fading of afterglow emission. These factors limit the feasibility of systematic optical follow-up by small and medium-sized telescopes, introducing selection biases in optically detected GRB samples. We simulate GRB follow-up observations using constraints on localization size, exposure time, limiting magnitude, and number of pointings to estimate detection probabilities for tiled optical observations. By varying observing strategies, we identify response times for which optical afterglow detection probabilities exceed 50% for GRBs with large uncertainty regions, and therefore calculate the afterglow detection rate under a given time constraint. We extend this analysis to GRBs that would be detected by Daksha and other high energy missions to compare follow-up feasibility and detection rates across instruments. Our results provide a framework for optimizing optical follow-up strategies and for interpreting apparent differences between GRB samples detected by different high-energy missions. |
