Short gamma ray bursts: formation and offsets

Short gamma ray bursts have been observed a variety of galaxies types with varying angular offsets from the centre of their host galaxies. To investigate the properties of short gamma ray burst offsets, a sample of short gamma ray bursts with host galaxies has been gathered. Two formation channels proposed to explain the observed offsets of short gamma ray bursts from their host galaxies are discussed. The classification of short gamma ray bursts into these formation channels is demonstrated for short gamma ray bursts with host galaxies. The possibility of faint dwarf galaxies as host environments for the observed short gamma ray bursts is also investigated. However, by extrapolating the distribution of dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way to redshifts corresponding to the short gamma ray bursts, we show that it is unlikely that dwarf galaxies are the hosts of short gamma ray bursts.