On the Prompt Gamma-ray Emission Properties of Short GRBs

Short Gamma-Ray Bursts have been identified as a separate class of events with distinct spectral and temporal properties from their long (>2 seconds) counterparts. Although multi-wavelength transients and their host galaxies had been found for the latter, it was only after the launch of the Swift satellite that short GRB counterparts and hosts were discovered and studied in detail. Currently, over a dozen short events have been detected with less than half having a measured redshift. Since 199 1 , GRB durations were established using BATSE gamma-ray light-curves; it is becoming, however, gradually evident from the Swift/BAT data, that we now need to fold spectral dependence, in particular prompt gamma-ray emission spectral time lags, into a multi-parameter GRB classification scheme. I will discuss here the properties of the prompt gamma-rays of all Swift short GRBs, compare them to those detected with BATSE and other missions and comment on the implications of the different subclass population each mission is probing.