Quick arcminute GRB positions with the Wide Field Cameras on-board BeppoSAX

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Abstract
X-ray counterparts of five gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been localized with the Wide Field cameras (WFCs) on board BeppoSAX to arcminute accuracy within an unprecedented short time of a few hours from the GRB event. These measurements have for the first time enabled the identification of afterglows in the X-ray, optical and radio range and led to the unambiguous determination of the cosmological distance scale. In retrospect, it is remarkable that the response time that led to the fundamental discovery of the optical afterglow was not very demanding (∼1 day). The detection of X-ray afterglow, however, requires a response time as fast as possible. We present improved GRB positions of the five bursts observed in the WFCs: GRB960720, GRB970111, GRB970228, GRB970402 and GRB970508. These results further strengthen the identification of detected X-ray, optical and radio transients as the afterglow of GRBs. Furthermore, we have investigated the spectral difference between WFC observations of GRBs and X-ray bursts. This will help in future searches for GRBs without a gamma-ray trigger.

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