Another short-burst host galaxy with an optically obscured high star formation rate: The case of GRB 071227

We report on radio continuum observations of the host galaxy of the short gamma-ray burst 071227 (z = 0.381) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We detect the galaxy in the 5.5 GHz band with an integrated flux density of F ν = 43 ± 11 μJy, corresponding to an unobscured star-formation rate of about 24 M ⊙ yr-1, 40 times higher than what was found from optical emission lines. Among the ∼30 well-identified and studied host galaxies of short bursts this is the third case where the host is found to undergo an episode of intense star formation. This suggests that a fraction of all short-burst progenitors hosted in star-forming galaxies could be physically related to recent star formation activity, implying a relatively short merger timescale. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.