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Progress in understanding the nature of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been rapid since the discovery of the first afterglows in mid-2005. The emerging picture appears to be of short GRBs, which originate at moderate redshift (a few tenths) and appear in galaxies of all ages. This discovery has been used to argue for their origin in compact binary mergers. However, this population does not describe all short bursts. Here, I will present results of observations of several short GRBs, which challenge the conclusions drawn from the early observations. The observations show that some short GRBs originate in the very low redshift Universe (below 100Mpc), while some may also lie at redshifts comparable with the long GRBs (i.e. z>2). I will discuss the properties of these bursts and the implications they have for the progenitors of short GRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a multiwavelength (X-ray, ultraviolet/optical/infrared (UVOIR), radio) analysis of the relativistic tidal disruption event (TDE) candidate Sw J2058+05 from 3 months to 3 yr post-discovery in order to study its properties and compare its behavior with that of Sw J1644+57. Our main results are as follows: (1) The long-term X-ray light curve of Sw J2058+05 shows a remarkably similar trend to that of Sw J1644+57. After a prolonged power-law decay, the X-ray flux drops off rapidly by a factor of ≳160 within a span of Δt/ . Associating this sudden decline with the transition from super-Eddington to sub-Eddington accretion, we estimate the black hole mass to be in the range of 104–6M. (2) We detect rapid (≲500 s) X-ray variability before the drop-off, suggesting that, even at late times, the X-rays originate from close to the black hole (ruling out a forward-shock origin). (3) We confirm using Hubble Space Telescope and Very Long Baseline Array astrometry that the location of the source coincides with the galaxy’s center to within ≲400 pc (in projection). (4) We modeled Sw J2058+05's UVOIR spectral energy distribution with a single-temperature blackbody and find that while the radius remains more or less constant at a value of 63.4 ± 4.5 AU ( cm) at all times during the outburst, the blackbody temperature drops significantly from ∼30,000 K at early times to a value of ∼15,000 K at late times (before the X-ray drop-off). Our results strengthen Sw J2058+05's interpretation as a TDE similar to Sw J1644+57. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]