Resolving gamma-ray burst 000301C with a gravitational microlens

The afterglow of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) 000301C exhibited achromatic, short-timescale variability that is difficult to reconcile with the standard relativistic shock model. We interpret the observed light curves as a microlensing event superposed on power-law flux decays typical of afterglows. In general, a relativistic GRB shock appears on the sky as a thin ring expanding at a superluminal speed. Initially the ring is small relative to its angular separation from the lens, and so its flux is magnified by a constant factor. As the ring grows and sweeps across the lens, its magnification reaches a maximum. Subsequently, the flux gradually recovers its unlensed value. This behavior involves only three free parameters in its simplest formulation and was predicted theoretically by A. Loeb & R. Perna. Fitting the available R-band photometric data of GRB 000301C to a simple model of the microlensing event and a broken power law for the afterglow, we find reasonable values for all the parameters and a reduced chi (2)/degrees of freedom parameter of 1.48 compared with 2.99 for the broken power-law fit alone. The peak magnification of similar to2 occurred 3.8 days after the burst. The entire optical to IR data imply a width of the GRB ring of order 10% of its radius, similar to theoretical expectations. The angular resolution provided by microlensing is better than a microarcsecond. We infer a mass of approximately 0.5 M. for a lens located halfway to the source at z(s) = 2.04. A galaxy 2" from GRB 000301C might be the host of the stellar lens, but current data provides only an upper limit on its surface brightness at die GRB position.