The BeppoSAX SOC short GRB project

One of the most intriguing mysteries of the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) phenomena is their bimodal duration distribution, originally found in C-GRO/Batse data. This separates GRBs in two classes of events, shorter and longer than 2 seconds. The bimodality suggests different emission sites and processes or even different physical models for the central engine of the burst, but its orgin is yet to be explained coherently. Recent results however have shown that the BeppoSAX Gamma Ray Burst Monitor (GRBM) is certainly sensitive enough to detect a large proportion of short events and that under certain circumstances their position may be determined using the BeppoSAX Wide Field Cameras (WFCs). We present the results of a real time research relevant to short GRBs being performed at the BeppoSAX Scientific Operation Center in parallel with archive analysis carried out in collaboration with BeppoSAX Scientific Data Center, IAS/CNR, TESRE/CNR, University of Ferrara and SRON.