scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Journal ArticleDOI

A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z ≈ 8.2

29 Oct 2009-Nature (Nature Publishing Group)-Vol. 461, Iss: 7268, pp 1254-1257
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors reported that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z approximate to 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs similar to 630 Myr after the Big Bang.
Abstract: Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars(1), and some are bright enough that they should be observable out to redshifts of z > 20 using current technology(2-4). Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z = 6.96, for a Lyman-alpha emitting galaxy(5). Here we report that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z approximate to 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs similar to 630 Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location of its host galaxy.

Summary (1 min read)

Jump to:  and [Summary]

Summary

  • Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z 5 6.96, for a Lyman-a emitting galaxy5.
  • The full grizYJHK spectral energy distribution (SED) obtained ,17 h after burst gives a photometric redshift of z 5 8:06z0:21{0:28, assuming a simple intergalactic medium (IGM) absorption model.
  • 21CRESST and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
  • Finding such events is not an unreasonable hope: the most extreme GRBs have had afterglows that were intrinsically significantly brighter than that of GRB 090423 at the same rest-frame time3,4, and their first spectra were recorded more than 15 h after the burst.
  • The infrared light curve was obtained using UKIRT, Gemini North, the MPI/ESO 2.2-m telescope and the VLT.
  • Error bars are 1s (68% confidence level) and the absolute magnitude scale corresponds to absolute AB magnitudes at 0.136mm.
  • Probing the neutral fraction of the IGM with GRBs during the epoch of reionization.

Did you find this useful? Give us your feedback

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

LETTERS
A c-ray burst at a redshift of z < 8.2
N. R. Tanvir
1
, D. B. Fox
2
, A. J. Levan
3
, E. Berger
4
, K. Wiersema
1
, J. P. U. Fynbo
5
, A. Cucchiara
2
, T. Kru
¨
hler
6,7
,
N. Gehrels
8
, J. S. Bloom
9
, J. Greiner
6
, P. A. Evans
1
, E. Rol
10
, F. Olivares
6
, J. Hjorth
5
, P. Jakobsson
11
, J. Farihi
1
,
R. Willingale
1
, R. L. C. Starling
1
, S. B. Cenko
9
, D. Perley
9
, J. R. Maund
5
, J. Duke
1
, R. A. M. J. Wijers
10
, A. J. Adamson
12
,
A. Allan
13
, M. N. Bremer
14
, D. N. Burrows
2
, A. J. Castro-Tirado
15
, B. Cavanagh
12
, A. de Ugarte Postigo
16
,
M. A. Dopita
17
, T. A. Fatkhullin
18
, A. S. Fruchter
19
, R. J. Foley
4
, J. Gorosabel
15
, J. Kennea
2
, T. Kerr
12
, S. Klose
20
,
H. A. Krimm
21,22
, V. N. Komarova
18
, S. R. Kulkarni
23
, A. S. Moskvitin
18
, C. G. Mundell
24
, T. Naylor
13
, K. Page
1
,
B. E. Penprase
25
, M. Perri
26
, P. Podsiadlowski
27
, K. Roth
28
, R. E. Rutledge
29
, T. Sakamoto
21
, P. Schady
30
, B. P. Schmidt
17
,
A. M. Soderberg
4
, J. Sollerman
5,31
, A. W. Stephens
28
, G. Stratta
26
, T. N. Ukwatta
8,32
, D. Watson
5
, E. Westra
4
,
T. Wold
12
& C. Wolf
27
Long-duration c-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the
explosions of certain massive stars
1
, and some are bright enough
that they should be observable out to redshifts of z . 20 using
current technology
2–4
. Hitherto, the highest redshift measured
for any object was z 5 6.96, for a Lyman-a emitting galaxy
5
.
Here we report that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z < 8.2, imply-
ing that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs
630 Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location
of its host galaxy.
GRB 090423 was detected by the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on
NASA’s Swift satellite
6
at 07:55:19 UT on 23 April 2009. Observations
with Swift’s X-ray Telescope (XRT), which began 73 s after the trig-
ger, revealed a variable X-ray counterpart and localized its position to
a precision of 2.3 arcsec (at the 90% confidence level). Ground-based
optical observations in the r, i and z filters starting within a few min-
utes of the burst revealed no counterpart at these wavelengths
(Supplementary Information).
The United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), Hawaii, began
imaging about 20 min after the burst, in response to an automated
request, and provided the first infrared (2.15-m m) detection of the
GRB afterglow. In parallel, observations in other near-infrared (NIR)
filters using the Gemini North 8-m telescope, Hawaii, showed that
the counterpart was only visible at wavelengths greater than about
1.2 mm (Fig. 1). In this range, the afterglow was relatively bright and
exhibited a shallow spectral slope, F
n
/ n
20.26
, in contrast to the deep
limit on any flux at 1.02 mm. Later observations from Chile using the
MPI/ESO 2.2-m telescope, Gemini South and the Very Large
Telescope (VLT) confirmed this finding. Such a sharp spectral break
cannot be produced by dust absorption at any redshift, and is a
textbook case of a short-wavelength ‘drop-out’ source. The full
grizYJHK spectral energy distribution (SED) obtained ,17 h after
burst gives a photometric redshift of z 5 8:06
z0:21
{0:28
, assuming a simple
intergalactic medium (IGM) absorption model. Complete details of
our imaging campaign are given in Supplementary Table 1.
Our first NIR spectroscopy was performed with the European
Southern Observatory (ESO) 8.2-m VLT, starting about 17.5 h after
the burst. These observations revealed a flat continuum that abruptly
disappeared at wavelengths less than about 1.13 mm, confirming the
origin of the break as being due to Lyman-a absorption by neutral
1
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
2
Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University,
University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
3
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
4
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
5
Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
6
Max-Planck-
Institut fu¨r Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstraße 1, 85740 Garching, Germany.
7
Universe Cluster, Technische Universita
¨
tMu¨nchen, Boltzmannstrasse 2, 85748 Garching,
Germany.
8
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
9
Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3411, USA.
10
Astronomical Institute ‘‘Anton Pannekoek’’, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 94249, 1090 GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
11
Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology, Science
Institute, University of Iceland, Dunhagi 5, 107 Reykjavı
´
k, Iceland.
12
Joint Astronomy Centre, 660 North A’ohoku Place, University Park, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA.
13
School of Physics,
University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK.
14
H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, UK.
15
Instituto de Astrofı
´
sica de
Andalucı
´
a del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientı
´
ficas, PO Box 03004, 18080 Granada, Spain.
16
European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile.
17
Research
School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, Australian Capital Territory 2611, Australia.
18
Special Astrophysical
Observatory, Nizhnij Arkhyz, Karachai-Cirkassian Republic, 369167, Russia.
19
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA.
20
Thu¨ringer
Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany.
21
CRESST and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA.
22
Universities Space
Research Association, 10211 Wincopin Circle, Suite 500, Columbia, Maryland 21044, USA.
23
Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, MC 249-17, Pasadena,
California 91125, USA.
24
Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Birkenhead CH41 1LD, UK.
25
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Pomona College,
Claremont, California 91711, USA.
26
ASI Science Data Center, Via Galileo Galilei, 00044 Frascati, Italy.
27
Department of Physics, Oxford University, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK.
28
Gemini Observatory, Hilo, Hawaii 96720, USA.
29
Physics Department, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8, Canada.
30
The UCL Mullard Space
Science Laboratory, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK.
31
The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
32
The
George Washington University, Washington DC 20052, USA.
Figure 1
|
Multiband images of the afterglow of GRB 090423. The right-
most panel shows the discovery image made using the UKIRT Wide Field
Infrared Camera with the K filter (centred at 2.15 mm) at a mid-time of about
30 min after the burst. The other three images (Y, 1.02 mm; J, 1.26 mm;
H, 1.65 mm) were obtained approximately 1.5 h after the burst using Gemini
North’s Near Infrared Imager and Spectrometer (NIRI). The main panels are
40 arcsec to a side, oriented with north to the top and east to the left. Insets,
regions around the GRB, smoothed and at higher contrast. The absence of
any flux in Y implies a power-law spectral slope between Y and J steeper than
F
n
/ n
218
and, coupled with the blue colour at longer wavelengths
(J2H(AB) < 0.15 mag), immediately implies a redshift greater than about
7.8 for GRB 090423.
Vol 461
|
29 October 2009
|
doi:10.1038/nature08459
1254
Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
©2009

hydrogen, with a redshift of z < 8.2. The spectrum and broadband
photometric observations, plotted over model data, are shown in
Fig. 2. To obtain a more quantitative estimate of the redshift, we fit
the spectra in redshift versus log[N
H
I
(cm
22
)] space, assuming a flat
prior likelihood value for log[N
H
I
(cm
22
)] of between 19 and 23,
which is broadly consistent with the distribution observed for
lower-redshift GRB hosts
7–9
. We take the neutral fraction of the
IGM to be 10%, although our conclusions depend only weakly on
this assumption. We find the redshift from ISAAC spectroscopy to be
z 5 8:19
z0:03
{0:06
. An additional spectrum, recorded ,40 h after the
burst using the VLT’s Spectrograph for INtegral Field Observations
in the Near Infrared confirms this analysis, yielding z 5 8:33
z0:06
{0:11
(Supplementary Information). Fitting simultaneously to both spec-
tra and the photometric data points gives our best estimate of the
redshift, z 5 8:23
z0:06
{0:07
. The low signal-to-noise ratio means we that
are unable to detect metal absorption features in either spectrum—
which would provide a more precise value of the redshift—and pre-
vents a meaningful attempt to measure the IGM H
I column density
in this instance. Our three independent redshift measures are con-
sistent with that reported from a low-resolution spectrum obtained
with the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, La Palma
10
.
The X-ray and NIR light curves of GRB 090423 (Fig. 3) show a
broken power-law decay, with evidence of flares in both the X-ray
and the infrared bands. The spectral energy distribution is consistent
with the presence of the cooling break between the X-ray and optical
bands. Apart from the unusually shallow spectral slope of the con-
tinuum at wavelengths greater than 1.2 mm, its afterglow properties in
general appear to be consistent with the bulk GRB population (see
Supplementary Information for further discussion).
With the standard cosmological parameters (Hubble parameter,
H
0
5 71 km s
21
Mpc
21
; total matter density, V
M
5 0.27; dark-
energy density, V
L
5 0.73) a redshift of z 5 8.2 corresponds to a time
of only 630 Myr after the Big Bang, when the Universe was just 4.6%
of its current age. GRB 090423’s inferred isotropic equivalent energy,
E
iso
5 1 3 10
53
erg (8–1,000 keV)
11
, indicates that it was a bright, but
not extreme, GRB. Thus, we find no evidence of exceptional beha-
viour that might indicate an origin in a population III progenitor.
First-generation stars are thought more likely to collapse into par-
ticularly massive black holes, which in turn may produce unusually
long-lived GRBs
12
; this seems not to be the case for GRB 090423.
Indeed, we note that the c-ray duration of GRB 090423,
t
90
5 10.3 s, corresponds in the rest frame to only 1.1 s, and the peak
energy measured by BAT, 49 keV, is moderately hard in the rest
frame. Two other GRBs with z . 5 (GRB 060927 and GRB 080913)
had similarly short rest-frame durations, leading to some debate
13
as
to whether their progenitors were similar to those of the ‘short-hard’
class of GRBs, which are not thought to be directly related to core
collapse. However, in the case of GRB 090423, a more careful extra-
polation of the observed c-ray and X-ray light curves to lower red-
shifts shows that its duration would have appeared significantly
longer than suggested by naive time-dilation considerations
14
.In
any event, short GRBs probably have their origins in compact objects
that are themselves the end products of massive stars, so the above
conclusions will hold irrespective of the population from which
GRB 090423 derives.
It has long been recognized that GRBs have the potential to be power-
ful probes of the early Universe
15
. Their association with individual stars
means that they serve as a signpost of star formation, even if their host
0.1
12
Flux density at 16 h (μJy)
20
10
0
–10
–20
0.2
Rest-frame wavelength (μm)
Observed wavelength (μm)
SZ J
23
22
21
20
19
8 8.5
Redshift
H
K
J
z
Y
log[N
H I
(cm
–2
)]
Figure 2
|
The composite infrared spectrum of the GRB 090423 afterglow.
SZ-band (0.98–1.1 mm) and J-band (1.1–1.4 mm) one- and two-dimensional
spectra obtained with the VLT using the Infrared Spectrometer And Array
Camera (ISAAC). Also plotted are the sky-subtracted photometric data
points obtained using Gemini North’s NIRI (red) and the VLT’s High Acuity
Wide field K-band Imager and Gemini South’s Gemini Multi-Object
Spectrograph (blue) (scaled to 16 h after the burst and expressed in
microjanskys; 1 Jy 5 10
226
Wm
22
Hz
21
). The vertical error bars show the
2s (95%) confidence level, and the horizontal lines indicate the widths of the
filters. The shorter-wavelength measurements are non-detections, and
emphasize the tight constraints on any transmitted flux below the break. The
break itself, at an observed wavelength of about 1.13 mm, is seen to occur
close to the short-wavelength limit of the J-band spectrum, below which,
although noisy, the spectrum shows no evidence of any detected continuum.
Details of the data-reduction steps and adaptive binning used to construct
these spectra are given in Supplementary Information. A model spectrum
showing the H
I damping wing for a host galaxy with a hydrogen column
density of N
H
I
5 10
21
cm
22
at a redshift of z 5 8.23 is also plotted (solid
black line), and provides a good fit to the data. Inset, allowing for a wider
range in possible host N
H
I
values gives the 1s (68%) and 2s confidence
contours shown. The fact that no deviation is seen from a power-law
spectrum at wavelengths greater than 1.2 mm, together with its shallow
spectral slope, suggests that there is little or no dust along the line of sight
through the GRB host galaxy (unless it is ‘grey’), consistent with the galaxy
being relatively unevolved, and having a low abundance of metals.
NATURE
|
Vol 461
|
29 October 2009 LETTERS
1255
Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
©2009

galaxies are too faint to detect directly. Equally important, precise deter-
mination of the hydrogen Lyman-a absorption profile can provide a
measure of the neutral fraction of the IGM at the location of the
burst
16–20
. With multiple GRBs at redshifts of z . 7, and the associated
information about the IGM, we could therefore trace the process of
reionization from its early stages
21
.
The high redshift of GRB 090423 has several crucial implications.
Predictions based on extrapolating the global star-formation-rate
density suggest that the observed rate of GRBs at z < 8 should be about
40% of that at z < 6 (ref. 12). Given the extra difficulty of identifying
afterglows at higher redshifts, our finding is broadly consistent with
these predictions. This is extremely encouraging for the prospects of
future initiatives aimed at finding high-redshift GRBs and using them
to locate and study primordial galaxies and measure the history of star
formation at early times
22–24
. Furthermore, it is close to the redshift
range in which the bulk of the cosmic reionization is thought to have
taken place
25–27
. Very high-redshift GRBs for which infrared spectro-
scopy was possible earlier, or which had brighter afterglows, would
provide a direct probe of the progress of reionization. Finding such
events is not an unreasonable hope: the most extreme GRBs have had
afterglows that were intrinsically significantly brighter than that of
GRB 090423 at the same rest-frame time
3,4
, and our first spectra were
recorded more than 15 h after the burst. Spectroscopy with a high
signal-to-noise ratio would also provide a measure of the metallicity
of the host galaxy, which potentially offers important clues to the
nature of any earlier generations of stars. Because the massive stars
that yield GRBs are also likely to belong to the same population that is
responsible for reionization, this suggests that GRBs will ultimately be
used to constrain both sides—supply and demand—of the cosmic
ionization budget in the early Universe.
Received 3 June; accepted 19 August 2009.
1. Woosley, S. E. & Bloom, J. S. The supernova gamma-ray burst connection. Annu.
Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 44, 507
556 (2006).
2. Lamb, D. Q. & Reichart, D. E. Gamma-ray bursts as a probe of the very high
redshift universe. Astrophys. J. 536, 1
18 (2000).
3. Racusin, J. L. et al. Broadband observations of the naked-eye c -ray burst
GRB 080319B. Nature 455, 183
188 (2008).
4. Bloom, J. S. et al. Observations of the naked-eye GRB080319B: implications of
nature’s brightest explosion. Astrophys. J. 691, 723
737 (2009).
5. Iye, M. et al. A galaxy at a redshift z 5 6.96. Nature 443, 186
188 (2006).
6. Gehrels, N. et al. The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission. Astrophys. J. 611,
1005
1020 (2004).
7. Jakobsson, P. et al. H I column densities of z . 2 Swift gamma-ray bursts. Astron.
Astrophys. 460, L13
L17 (2006).
8. Chen, H.-W., Prochaska, J. X. & Gnedin, N. Y. A new constraint on the escape
fraction in distant galaxies using c-ray burst afterglow spectroscopy. Astrophys. J.
667, L125
L128 (2007).
9. Fynbo, J. P. U. et al. Low-resolution spectroscopy of gamma-ray burst optical
afterglows: biases in the Swift sample and characterization of the absorbers.
Preprint at Æhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0907.3449æ (2009).
10. Salvaterra, R. et al. GRB 090423 at a redshift of z < 8.1. Nature doi:10.1038/
nature08459 (this issue).
0.1
10
5
10
4
1,000
100
10
1
0.1
0.01
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
1 10 100 1,000
J band
H band
K band
10
4
10
5
10
6
10
7
1 10 100 1,000
Rest-frame time since GRB 090423 (s)
Observer time since GRB 090423 (s)
X-ray
Luminosity (erg s
–1
)
Flux (10
–12
erg s
–1
cm
–2
)
AB magnitude
M
AB
Infrared
10
4
10
5
10
6
10
52
10
51
10
50
10
49
10
48
10
47
10
46
–28
–27
–26
–25
–24
–23
–22
Figure 3
|
The X-ray and infrared light curves of GRB 090423. The axes
show both observed (left-hand and bottom axes) and rest-frame (right-hand
and top axes) quantities. The X-ray light curve was obtained using Swift’s
BAT (cyan) and XRT (magenta), where the BAT observations have been
extrapolated into the X-ray band. The fitted function represents a
phenomenological model
28
of the prompt and afterglow components. The
infrared light curve was obtained using UKIRT, Gemini North, the MPI/ESO
2.2-m telescope and the VLT. For consistency, although individual bands are
plotted, they have been transformed into absolute magnitudes in the J band
by means of the best-fitting SED (F
n
/ n
20.26
). We show two illustrative fits
to the infrared light curve. The solid line shows a plateau, breaking at
24,000 s to a steeper slope proportional to ,t
21.4
. This underestimates the
late time points, which must then be interpreted as a flare. The dashed line
shows an alternative model, in which mid-time points at ,60,000 s are
instead interpreted as a flare; this is more consistent with the later time
points and the X-ray break time at the end of the plateau. However, in this
case the post-break slope, proportional to ,t
20.7
, is much slower than the
X-ray decay at comparable times, and it further requires a additional break in
the light curve to accommodate the late-time upper limit. Error bars are 1s
(68% confidence level) and the absolute magnitude scale corresponds to
absolute AB magnitudes at 0.136 mm. See Supplementary Information for
further details.
LETTERS NATURE
|
Vol 461
|
29 October 2009
1256
Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
©2009

11. von Kienlin, A. et al. GRB 090423: Fermi GBM observation (correction of isotropic
equivalent energy). GCN Circ. 9251 (2009).
12. Bromm, V. & Loeb, A. High-redshift gamma-ray bursts from population III
progenitors. Astrophys. J. 642, 382
388 (2006).
13. Zhang, B. et al. Physical classification scheme of cosmological gamma-ray bursts
and their observational characteristics: on the nature of z56.7 GRB 080913 and
some short/hard GRBs. Astrophys J. (in the press); preprint at Æhttp://arxiv.org/
abs/0902.2419v1æ (2009).
14. Zhang, B.-B. & Zhang, B. GRB 090423: pseudo burst at z51 and its relation to GRB
080913. GCN Circ. 9279 (2009).
15. Wijers, R. A. M. J. et al. Gamma-ray bursts from stellar remnants - probing the
universe at high redshift. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 294, L13
L17 (1998).
16. Miralda-Escude, J. Reionization of the intergalactic medium and the damping
wing of the Gunn-Peterson Trough. Astrophys. J. 501, 15
22 (1998).
17. Barkana, R. & Loeb, A. Gamma-ray bursts versus quasars: Lya signatures of
reionization versus cosmological infall. Astrophys. J. 601, 64
77 (2004).
18. Totani, T. et al. Implications for cosmic reionization from the optical afterglow
spectrum of the gamma-ray burst 050904 at z 5 6.3. Publ. Astron. Soc. Jpn 58,
485
498 (2009).
19. Greiner, J. et al. GRB 080913 at redshift 6.7. Astrophys. J. 693, 1610
1620 (2009).
20. Faucher-Giguere, C.-A., Lidz, A., Hernquist, L. & Zaldarriaga, M. Evolution of the
intergalactic opacity: implications for the ionizing background, cosmic star
formation, and quasar activity. Astrophys. J. 688, 85
107 (2008).
21. McQuinn, M. et al. Probing the neutral fraction of the IGM with GRBs during the
epoch of reionization. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 388, 1101
1110 (2008).
22. Grindlay, J. in Gamma-Ray Burst: Sixth Huntsville Symposium (eds Meegan, C.,
Kouveliotou, C. & Gehrels, N.) 18
24 (AIP Conf. Ser. 1113, American Institute of
Physics, 2009).
23. Tanvir, N. R. & Jakobsson, P. Observations of GRBs at high redshift. Phil. Trans. R.
Soc. A 365, 1377
1384 (2007).
24. Berger, E. et al. Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer observations of the afterglow
and host galaxy of GRB 050904 at z 5 6.295. Astrophys. J. 665, 102
106 (2007).
25. Komatsu, E. et al. Five-year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe observations:
cosmological interpretation. Astrophys. J. 180 (suppl.), 330
376 (2009).
26. Malhotra, S. & Rhoads, J. E. Luminosity functions of Lya emitters at redshifts
z56.5 and z55.7: evidence against reionization at z#6.5. Astrophys. J. 617, L5
L8
(2004).
27. Becker, G. D., Rauch, M. & Sargent, W. L. W. The evolution of optical depth in the
Lya forest: evidence against reionization at z,6. Astrophys. J. 662, 72
93 (2007).
28. Willingale, R. et al. Testing the standard fireball model of gamma-ray bursts using
late X-ray afterglows measured by Swift. Astrophys. J. 662, 1093
1110 (2007).
Supplementary Information is linked to the online version of the paper at
www.nature.com/nature.
Acknowledgements We thank Ph. Yock, B. Allen, P. Kubanek, M. Jelinek and
S. Guziy for their assistance with the BOOTES-3 YA telescope observations
(Supplementary Information). This work was partly based on observations
obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with
the US National Science Foundation on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the
National Science Foundation (United States), the Science and Technology Facilities
Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT
(Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), the Ministe
´
rio da Cie
ˆ
ncia e
Tecnologia (Brazil) and SECYT (Argentina). This work was also partly based on
observations made using ESO telescopes at the La Silla or Paranal observatories by
G. Carraro, L. Schmidtobreick, G. Marconi, J. Smoker, V. Ivanov, E. Mason and
M. Huertas-Company. The UKIRT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on
behalf of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council. R.J.F. acknowledges a
Clay Fellowship.
Author Contributions Triggering observations: N.R.T., D.B.F., A.J.L., E.B., J.S.B.,
D.P., J. Greiner, A.J.C.-T., A.d.U.P.; analysis of ground-based data: N.R.T., D.B.F.,
A.J.L., E.B., K.W., J.P.U.F., A.C., J.S.B., J.F., J.D., J. Gorosabel, B.C., D.P., J.R.M.,
T. Kru¨hler, A.J.C.-T., A.d.U.P., C.G.M.; Swift analysis: P.A.E., R.L.C.S., K.P., R.W.,
A.J.L., N.R.T., N.G., D.W., P.S., T.S.; observations at various observatories and their
automation to accept GRB overrides: A.J.A., A.A., T. Kerr, T.N., A.W.S., K.R., T.W.
All authors made contributions through their involvement in the programmes from
which the data derive, and contributed to the interpretation, content and
discussion presented here. Writing was led by N.R.T., A.J.L., D.B.F. and E.B.
Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at
www.nature.com/reprints. Correspondence and requests for materials should be
addressed to N.R.T. (nrt3@star.le.ac.uk).
NATURE
|
Vol 461
|
29 October 2009 LETTERS
1257
Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved
©2009
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the 89s of the emission of GRB 101023 to see if there are two di erent episodes: the first one presenting a characteristic black-body temperature evolving in time as a broken power law, and the second one consistent with a canonical GRB.
Abstract: Context: It has been recently shown that GRB 090618, observed by AGILE, Coronas Photon, Fermi, Konus, Suzaku and Swift, is composed of two very di erent components: episode 1, lasting 50 s, shows a thermal plus power-law spectrum with a characteristic temperature evolving in time as a power law; episode 2 (the remaining 100 s) is a canonical long GRB. We have associated episode 1 to the progenitor of a collapsing bare core leading to the formation of a black hole: what was defined as a “proto black hole”. Aims: In precise analogy with GRB 090618 we aim to analyze the 89s of the emission of GRB 101023, observed by Fermi, Gemini, Konus and Swift, to see if there are two di erent episodes: the first one presenting a characteristic black-body temperature evolving in time as a broken power law, and the second one consistent with a canonical GRB. Methods: To obtain information on the spectra, we analyzed the data provided by the GBM detector onboard the Fermi satellite, and we used the heasoft package XSPEC and RMFIT to obtain their spectral distribution. We also used the numerical code GRBsim to simulate the emission in the context of the fireshell scenario for episode 2. Results: We confirm that the first episode can be well fit by a black body plus power-law spectral model. The temperature changes with time following a broken power law, and the photon index of the power-law component presents a soft-to-hard evolution. We estimate that the radius of this source increases with time with a velocity of 1:5 10 4 km=s. The second episode appears to be a canonical GRB. By using the Amati and the Atteia relations, we determined the cosmological redshift, z 0:9 0:084(stat:) 0:2(sys:). The results of GRB 090618 are compared and contrasted with the results of GRB 101023. Particularly striking is the scaling law of the soft X-ray component of the afterglow. Conclusions: We identify GRB 090618 and GRB 101023 with a new family of GRBs related to a single core collapse and presenting two astrophysical components: a first one related to the proto-black hole prior to the process of gravitational collapse (episode 1), and a second one, which is the canonical GRB (episode 2) emitted during the formation of the black hole. For the first time we are witnessing the process of a black hole formation from the instants preceding the gravitational collapse up to the GRB emission. This analysis indicates progress towards developing a GRB distance indicator based on understanding the P-GRB and the prompt emission, as well as the soft X-ray behavior of the late afterglow.

47 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a combination of the optical VRI photometry obtained by the RAPTOR-T telescope array and Swift's X-Ray Telescope (XRT) observations to estimate the rest-frame afterglow brightness as a function of time.
Abstract: We model the time-variable absorption of Fe ii, Fe iii, Si ii, C ii and Cr ii detected in Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) spectra of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 080310, with the afterglow radiation exciting and ionizing the interstellar medium in the host galaxy at a redshift of z = 2.42743. To estimate the rest-frame afterglow brightness as a function of time, we use a combination of the optical VRI photometry obtained by the RAPTOR-T telescope array, which is presented in this paper, and Swift’s X-Ray Telescope (XRT) observations. Excitation alone, which has been successfully applied for a handful of other GRBs, fails to describe the observed column density evolution in the case of GRB 080310. Inclusion of ionization is required to explain the column density decrease of all observed Fe ii levels (including the ground state 6D9/2) and increase of the Fe iii 7S3 level. The large population of ions in this latter level (up to 10% of all Fe iii) can only be explained through ionization of Fe ii, as a large fraction of the ionized Fe ii ions (we calculate 31% using the Flexible Atomic and Cowan codes) initially populate the 7S3 level of Fe iii rather than the ground state. This channel for producing a significant Fe iii 7S3 level population may be relevant for other objects in which absorption lines from this level, the UV34 triplet, are observed, such as broad absorption line (BAL) quasars and η Carinae. This provides conclusive evidence for time-variable ionization in the circumburst medium, which to date has not been convincingly detected. However, the best-fit distance of the neutral absorbing cloud to the GRB is 200-400 pc, i.e. similar to GRB-absorber distance estimates for GRBs without any evidence for ionization. We find that the presence of time-varying ionization in GRB 080310 is likely due to a combination of the super-solar iron abundance ([Fe/H] = +0.2) and the low H i column density (log N(H i) = 18.7) in the host of GRB 080310. Finally, the modelling provides indications for the presence of an additional cloud at 10-50 pc from the GRB with log N(H i) ~ 19-20 before the burst, which became fully ionized by the radiation released during the first few tens of minutes after the GRB.

47 citations


Cites background from "A γ-ray burst at a redshift of z ≈ ..."

  • ...Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows can be detected at nearly any wavelength up to very high redshifts (Tanvir et al. 2009; Cucchiara et al. 2011) and are associated with the deaths of massive stars (for a recent review, see Hjorth & Bloom 2011); they are therefore considered promising probes of star…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented spectra of all gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows that have been promptly observed with the X-shooter spectrograph until 31-03-2017.
Abstract: In this work we present spectra of all $\gamma$-ray burst (GRB) afterglows that have been promptly observed with the X-shooter spectrograph until 31-03-2017. In total, we obtained spectroscopic observations of 103 individual GRBs observed within 48 hours of the GRB trigger. Redshifts have been measured for 97 per cent of these, covering a redshift range from 0.059 to 7.84. Based on a set of observational selection criteria that minimize biases with regards to intrinsic properties of the GRBs, the follow-up effort has been focused on producing a homogeneous sample of 93 afterglow spectra for GRBs discovered by the Swift satellite. We here provide a public release of all the reduced spectra, including continuum estimates and telluric absorption corrections. For completeness, we also provide reductions for the 18 late-time observations of the underlying host galaxies. We provide an assessment of the degree of completeness with respect to the parent GRB population, in terms of the X-ray properties of the bursts in the sample and find that the sample presented here is representative of the full Swift sample. We constrain the fraction of dark bursts to be < 28 per cent and we confirm previous results that higher optical darkness is correlated with increased X-ray absorption. For the 42 bursts for which it is possible, we provide a measurement of the neutral hydrogen column density, increasing the total number of published HI column density measurements by $\sim$ 33 per cent. This dataset provides a unique resource to study the ISM across cosmic time, from the local progenitor surroundings to the intervening universe.

46 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as cosmological probes to distinguish between two very different cosmologies, and they concluded that GRBs are currently far from being effective cosmologists probes, as they are unable to differentiate between these two different expansion histories.
Abstract: LambdaCDM, for the currently preferred cosmological density Omega_0 and cosmological constant Omega_Lambda, predicts that the Universe expansion decelerates from early times to redshift z~0.9 and accelerates at later times. On the contrary, the cosmological model based on conformal gravity predicts that the cosmic expansion has always been accelerating. To distinguish between these two very different cosmologies, we resort to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which have been suggested to probe the Universe expansion history at z>1, where identified type Ia supernovae (SNe) are rare. We use the full Bayesian approach to infer the cosmological parameters and the additional parameters required to describe the GRB data available in the literature. For the first time, we use GRBs as cosmological probes without any prior information from other data. In addition, when we combine the GRB samples with SNe, our approach neatly avoids all the inconsistencies of most numerous previous methods that are plagued by the so-called circularity problem. In fact, when analyzed properly, current data are consistent with distance moduli of GRBs and SNe that can respectively be, in a variant of conformal gravity, ~15 and ~3 magnitudes fainter than in LambdaCDM. Our results indicate that the currently available SN and GRB samples are accommodated equally well by both LambdaCDM and conformal gravity and do not exclude a continuous accelerated expansion. We conclude that GRBs are currently far from being effective cosmological probes, as they are unable to distinguish between these two very different expansion histories.

46 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Near-infrared and high-resolution optical spectroscopy of the bright afterglow of the very intense gamma-ray burst recorded on 2002, October 4 is obtained, providing a detailed picture of the spatial and velocity structure of the GRB progenitor star at the time of explosion.
Abstract: Aims. We analyse the distribution of matter around the progenitor star of gamma-ray burst GRB 021004 and the properties of its host galaxy with high-resolution echelle and near-infrared spectroscopy. Methods. Observations were taken by the 8.2 m Very Large Telescope with the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle spectrograph (UVES) and the Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC) between 10 and 14 h after the onset of the event. Results. We report the first detection of emission lines from a GRB host galaxy in the near-infrared, detecting Hα and the [O III] doublet. These allow us to independently measure the systemic redshift (z = 2.3304 ± 0.0005), which is not contaminated by absorption as the Lyα line is, and infer the host galaxy properties. From the visual echelle spectroscopy, we find several absorptionline groups spanning a range of about 3000 km s −1 in velocity relative to the redshift of the host galaxy. The absorption profiles are very complex with both velocity-broadened components extending over several 100 km s −1 and narrow lines with velocity widths of only ∼20 km s −1 . By analogy with QSO absorption line studies, the relative velocities, widths, and degrees of ionization of the lines (“line-locking”, “ionization-velocity correlation”) show that the progenitor had both an extremely strong radiation field and several distinct mass-loss phases (winds). Conclusions. These results are consistent with GRB progenitors being massive stars, such as luminous blue variables (LBVs) or Wolf-Rayet stars, providing a detailed picture of the spatial and velocity structure of the GRB progenitor star at the time of explosion. −

46 citations

References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a combination of seven-year data from WMAP and improved astrophysical data rigorously tests the standard cosmological model and places new constraints on its basic parameters and extensions.
Abstract: The combination of seven-year data from WMAP and improved astrophysical data rigorously tests the standard cosmological model and places new constraints on its basic parameters and extensions. By combining the WMAP data with the latest distance measurements from the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) in the distribution of galaxies and the Hubble constant (H0) measurement, we determine the parameters of the simplest six-parameter ΛCDM model. The power-law index of the primordial power spectrum is ns = 0.968 ± 0.012 (68% CL) for this data combination, a measurement that excludes the Harrison–Zel’dovich–Peebles spectrum by 99.5% CL. The other parameters, including those beyond the minimal set, are also consistent with, and improved from, the five-year results. We find no convincing deviations from the minimal model. The seven-year temperature power spectrum gives a better determination of the third acoustic peak, which results in a better determination of the redshift of the matter-radiation equality epoch. Notable examples of improved parameters are the total mass of neutrinos, � mν < 0.58 eV (95% CL), and the effective number of neutrino species, Neff = 4.34 +0.86 −0.88 (68% CL), which benefit from better determinations of the third peak and H0. The limit on a constant dark energy equation of state parameter from WMAP+BAO+H0, without high-redshift Type Ia supernovae, is w =− 1.10 ± 0.14 (68% CL). We detect the effect of primordial helium on the temperature power spectrum and provide a new test of big bang nucleosynthesis by measuring Yp = 0.326 ± 0.075 (68% CL). We detect, and show on the map for the first time, the tangential and radial polarization patterns around hot and cold spots of temperature fluctuations, an important test of physical processes at z = 1090 and the dominance of adiabatic scalar fluctuations. The seven-year polarization data have significantly improved: we now detect the temperature–E-mode polarization cross power spectrum at 21σ , compared with 13σ from the five-year data. With the seven-year temperature–B-mode cross power spectrum, the limit on a rotation of the polarization plane due to potential parity-violating effects has improved by 38% to Δα =− 1. 1 ± 1. 4(statistical) ± 1. 5(systematic) (68% CL). We report significant detections of the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (SZ) effect at the locations of known clusters of galaxies. The measured SZ signal agrees well with the expected signal from the X-ray data on a cluster-by-cluster basis. However, it is a factor of 0.5–0.7 times the predictions from “universal profile” of Arnaud et al., analytical models, and hydrodynamical simulations. We find, for the first time in the SZ effect, a significant difference between the cooling-flow and non-cooling-flow clusters (or relaxed and non-relaxed clusters), which can explain some of the discrepancy. This lower amplitude is consistent with the lower-than-theoretically expected SZ power spectrum recently measured by the South Pole Telescope Collaboration.

11,309 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 5-year data were used to constrain the physics of cosmic inflation via Gaussianity, adiabaticity, the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations, gravitational waves, and spatial curvature.
Abstract: The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) 5-year data provide stringent limits on deviations from the minimal, six-parameter Λ cold dark matter model. We report these limits and use them to constrain the physics of cosmic inflation via Gaussianity, adiabaticity, the power spectrum of primordial fluctuations, gravitational waves, and spatial curvature. We also constrain models of dark energy via its equation of state, parity-violating interaction, and neutrino properties, such as mass and the number of species. We detect no convincing deviations from the minimal model. The six parameters and the corresponding 68% uncertainties, derived from the WMAP data combined with the distance measurements from the Type Ia supernovae (SN) and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) in the distribution of galaxies, are: Ω b h 2 = 0.02267+0.00058 –0.00059, Ω c h 2 = 0.1131 ± 0.0034, ΩΛ = 0.726 ± 0.015, ns = 0.960 ± 0.013, τ = 0.084 ± 0.016, and at k = 0.002 Mpc-1. From these, we derive σ8 = 0.812 ± 0.026, H 0 = 70.5 ± 1.3 km s-1 Mpc–1, Ω b = 0.0456 ± 0.0015, Ω c = 0.228 ± 0.013, Ω m h 2 = 0.1358+0.0037 –0.0036, z reion = 10.9 ± 1.4, and t 0 = 13.72 ± 0.12 Gyr. With the WMAP data combined with BAO and SN, we find the limit on the tensor-to-scalar ratio of r 1 is disfavored even when gravitational waves are included, which constrains the models of inflation that can produce significant gravitational waves, such as chaotic or power-law inflation models, or a blue spectrum, such as hybrid inflation models. We obtain tight, simultaneous limits on the (constant) equation of state of dark energy and the spatial curvature of the universe: –0.14 < 1 + w < 0.12(95%CL) and –0.0179 < Ω k < 0.0081(95%CL). We provide a set of WMAP distance priors, to test a variety of dark energy models with spatial curvature. We test a time-dependent w with a present value constrained as –0.33 < 1 + w 0 < 0.21 (95% CL). Temperature and dark matter fluctuations are found to obey the adiabatic relation to within 8.9% and 2.1% for the axion-type and curvaton-type dark matter, respectively. The power spectra of TB and EB correlations constrain a parity-violating interaction, which rotates the polarization angle and converts E to B. The polarization angle could not be rotated more than –59 < Δα < 24 (95% CL) between the decoupling and the present epoch. We find the limit on the total mass of massive neutrinos of ∑m ν < 0.67 eV(95%CL), which is free from the uncertainty in the normalization of the large-scale structure data. The number of relativistic degrees of freedom (dof), expressed in units of the effective number of neutrino species, is constrained as N eff = 4.4 ± 1.5 (68%), consistent with the standard value of 3.04. Finally, quantitative limits on physically-motivated primordial non-Gaussianity parameters are –9 < f local NL < 111 (95% CL) and –151 < f equil NL < 253 (95% CL) for the local and equilateral models, respectively.

5,904 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show that the tensor-to-scalar ratio r 1 is disfavored regardless of r. They provide a set of "WMAP distance priors, to test a variety of dark energy models.
Abstract: (Abridged) The WMAP 5-year data strongly limit deviations from the minimal LCDM model. We constrain the physics of inflation via Gaussianity, adiabaticity, the power spectrum shape, gravitational waves, and spatial curvature. We also constrain the properties of dark energy, parity-violation, and neutrinos. We detect no convincing deviations from the minimal model. The parameters of the LCDM model, derived from WMAP combined with the distance measurements from the Type Ia supernovae (SN) and the Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO), are: Omega_b=0.0456+-0.0015, Omega_c=0.228+-0.013, Omega_Lambda=0.726+-0.015, H_0=70.5+-1.3 km/s/Mpc, n_s=0.960+-0.013, tau=0.084+-0.016, and sigma_8=0.812+-0.026. With WMAP+BAO+SN, we find the tensor-to-scalar ratio r 1 is disfavored regardless of r. We obtain tight, simultaneous limits on the (constant) equation of state of dark energy and curvature. We provide a set of "WMAP distance priors," to test a variety of dark energy models. We test a time-dependent w with a present value constrained as -0.33<1+w_0<0.21 (95% CL). Temperature and matter fluctuations obey the adiabatic relation to within 8.9% and 2.1% for the axion and curvaton-type dark matter, respectively. The TE and EB spectra constrain cosmic parity-violation. We find the limit on the total mass of neutrinos, sum(m_nu)<0.67 eV (95% CL), which is free from the uncertainty in the normalization of the large-scale structure data. The effective number of neutrino species is constrained as N_{eff} = 4.4+-1.5 (68%), consistent with the standard value of 3.04. Finally, limits on primordial non-Gaussianity are -9

5,875 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
20 Aug 2004
TL;DR: The Swift mission as discussed by the authors is a multi-wavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy, which is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy and pioneers the way for future rapid-reaction and multiwavelength missions.
Abstract: The Swift mission, scheduled for launch in 2004, is a multiwavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy. It is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy and pioneers the way for future rapid-reaction and multiwavelength missions. It will be far more powerful than any previous GRB mission, observing more than 100 bursts yr � 1 and performing detailed X-ray and UV/optical afterglow observations spanning timescales from 1 minute to several days after the burst. The objectives are to (1) determine the origin of GRBs, (2) classify GRBs and search for new types, (3) study the interaction of the ultrarelativistic outflows of GRBs with their surrounding medium, and (4) use GRBs to study the early universe out to z >10. The mission is being developed by a NASA-led international collaboration. It will carry three instruments: a newgeneration wide-field gamma-ray (15‐150 keV) detector that will detect bursts, calculate 1 0 ‐4 0 positions, and trigger autonomous spacecraft slews; a narrow-field X-ray telescope that will give 5 00 positions and perform spectroscopy in the 0.2‐10 keV band; and a narrow-field UV/optical telescope that will operate in the 170‐ 600 nm band and provide 0B3 positions and optical finding charts. Redshift determinations will be made for most bursts. In addition to the primary GRB science, the mission will perform a hard X-ray survey to a sensitivity of � 1m crab (� 2;10 � 11 ergs cm � 2 s � 1 in the 15‐150 keV band), more than an order of magnitude better than HEAO 1 A-4. A flexible data and operations system will allow rapid follow-up observations of all types of

3,753 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A homogeneous X-rays analysis of all 318 gamma-ray bursts detected by the X-ray telescope (XRT) on the Swift satellite up to 2008 July 23 is presented; this represents the largest sample ofX-ray GRB data published to date.
Abstract: We present a homogeneous X-ray analysis of all 318 gamma-ray bursts detected by the X-ray telescope (XRT) on the Swift satellite up to 2008 July 23; this represents the largest sample of X-ray GRB data published to date. In Sections 2-3, we detail the methods which the Swift-XRT team has developed to produce the enhanced positions, light curves, hardness ratios and spectra presented in this paper. Software using these methods continues to create such products for all new GRBs observed by the Swift-XRT. We also detail web-based tools allowing users to create these products for any object observed by the XRT, not just GRBs. In Sections 4-6, we present the results of our analysis of GRBs, including probability distribution functions of the temporal and spectral properties of the sample. We demonstrate evidence for a consistent underlying behaviour which can produce a range of light-curve morphologies, and attempt to interpret this behaviour in the framework of external forward shock emission. We find several difficulties, in particular that reconciliation of our data with the forward shock model requires energy injection to continue for days to weeks.

1,613 citations

Related Papers (5)