Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Observations of Gamma-ray Bursts with ASTRO-H and Fermi

Masanori Ohno
Takafumi Kawano, Makoto S. Tashiro, Daisuke Yonetoku, Hiroaki Sameshima, Haruka Ueno, Hiromi Seta, Richard Mushotkzy, Kazutaka Yamaoka, Tadayuki Takahashi, and ASTRO-H team

Abstract:

ASTRO-H, the sixth Japanese X-ray observatory, which is scheduled to be launched in 2015 has a capability to observe the prompt emission from Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) utilizing 25 BGO active shields of the soft gamma-ray detector (SGD). The effective area of the SGD shield detectors is very large and its data acquisition system is optimized for short transients such as short GRBs. Thus, we expect to perform more detailed time-resolved spectral analysis with a combination of ASTRO-H and Fermi LAT/GBM to investigate the gamma-ray emission mechanism of short GRBs. In addition to the gamma-ray emission mechanism itself, the environment of the GRB progenitor should be a remarkable objective from the point of view of the chemical evolution of high-z universe. If we can maneuver the spacecraft to the GRBs, we can perform a high-resolution spectroscopy and high-sensitive hard X-ray observation of the X-ray afterglow of GRBs utilizing the onboard micro calorimeter, X-ray CCD camera, and hard X-ray imager, and we can examine the spectral features such as iron-K line emission, recombination edge, and several lines due to light metals. In this contribution, we present the capability of GRB observations with ASTRO-H and synergy with Fermi.