Gamma‐Ray Burst Afterglow Light Curves in the Pre‐<i>Swift</i>Era: A Statistical Study

Abstract

We present the results of a systematic analysis of the world sample of\noptical/near-infrared afterglow light curves observed in the pre-Swift era by\nthe end of 2004. After selecting the best observed 16 afterglows with\nwell-sampled light curves that can be described by a Beuermann equation, we\nexplore the parameter space of the light curve parameters and physical\nquantities related to them. In addition, we search for correlations between\nthese parameters and the corresponding gamma-ray data, and we use our data set\nto look for a fine structure in the light curves.\n