Detection of GRB 060927 at z = 5.47: Implications for the Use of Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes of the End of the Dark Ages*
A. E. Ruiz-Velasco,A. E. Ruiz-Velasco,H. F. Swan,Eleonora Troja,Eleonora Troja,Eleonora Troja,D. Malesani,Johan P. U. Fynbo,R. L. C. Starling,Dong Xu,Felix Aharonian,Carl W. Akerlof,Michael I. Andersen,Michael C. B. Ashley,Scott Barthelmy,D. Bersier,M. Castro Cerón,A. J. Castro-Tirado,N. Gehrels,Ersin Gogus,Javier Gorosabel,C. Guidorzi,C. Guidorzi,Tolga Guver,Jens Hjorth,Dieter Horns,K. Y. Huang,Pall Jakobsson,B. L. Jensen,Ümit Kiziloğlu,Chryssa Kouveliotou,Hans A. Krimm,Hans A. Krimm,C. Ledoux,Andrew J. Levan,T. R. Marsh,Timothy A. McKay,A. Melandri,Bo Milvang-Jensen,Carole Mundell,P. T. O'Brien,M. Özel,A. Phillips,Robert Quimby,Gavin Rowell,Wiphu Rujopakarn,E. S. Rykoff,Bradley E. Schaefer,Jesper Sollerman,Nial R. Tanvir,Christina C. Thöne,Yuji Urata,W. T. Vestrand,Paul Vreeswijk,Darach Watson,John C Wheeler,Ralph A. M. J. Wijers,Jim Wren,S. A. Yost,Fang Yuan,Meng Zhai,W. K. Zheng +61 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors report on follow-up observations of the gamma-ray burst GRB 060927 using the robotic ROTSE-IIIa telescope and a suite of larger aperture ground-based telescopes.Abstract:
We report on follow-up observations of the gamma-ray burst GRB 060927 using the robotic ROTSE-IIIa telescope and a suite of larger aperture groundbased telescopes. An optical afterglow was detected 20 s after the burst, the earliest rest-frame detection of optical emission from any GRB. Spectroscopy performed with the VLT about 13 hours after the trigger shows a continuum break at lambda approx. equals 8070 A, produced by neutral hydrogen absorption at zeta = 5.6. We also detect an absorption line at 8158 A which we interpret as Si II lambda 1260 at zeta = 5.467. Hence, GRB 060927 is the second most distant GRB with a spectroscopically measured redshift. The shape of the red wing of the spectral break can be fitted by a damped Ly(alpha) profile with a column density with log(N(sub HI)/sq cm) = 22.50 +/- 0.15. We discuss the implications of this work for the use of GRBs as probes of the end of the dark ages and draw three main conclusions: i) GRB afterglows originating from zeta greater than or approx. equal to 6 should be relatively easy to detect from the ground, but rapid near-infrared monitoring is necessary to ensure that they are found; ii) The presence of large H I column densities in some GRBs host galaxies at zeta > 5 makes the use of GRBs to probe the reionization epoch via spectroscopy of the red damping wing challenging; iii) GRBs appear crucial to locate typical star-forming galaxies at zeta > 5 and therefore the type of galaxies responsible for the reionization of the universe.read more
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A Photometric Redshift of z ~ 9.4 for GRB 090429B
A. Cucchiara,A. Cucchiara,A. Cucchiara,Andrew J. Levan,D. B. Fox,Nial R. Tanvir,T. N. Ukwatta,T. N. Ukwatta,Edo Berger,Thomas Krühler,A. Küpcü Yoldas,A. Küpcü Yoldas,Xue-Feng Wu,Xue-Feng Wu,Kenji Toma,Jochen Greiner,F. E. Olivares,Antonia Rowlinson,Lorenzo Amati,T. Sakamoto,Kathy Roth,Andrew W. Stephens,Alexander Fritz,Johan P. U. Fynbo,Jens Hjorth,D. Malesani,Pall Jakobsson,K. Wiersema,P. T. O'Brien,Alicia M. Soderberg,Ryan J. Foley,A. S. Fruchter,James E. Rhoads,R. E. Rutledge,Brian P. Schmidt,Michael A. Dopita,P. Podsiadlowski,Richard Willingale,Christian Wolf,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,P. D'Avanzo +40 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a photometric redshift of 9.4 for the Swift detected GRB 090429B based on deep observations with Gemini-North, the Very Large Telescope, and the GRB Optical and Near-infrared Detector.
Journal ArticleDOI
Low-resolution Spectroscopy of Gamma-ray Burst Optical Afterglows: Biases in the Swift Sample and Characterization of the Absorbers
Johan P. U. Fynbo,Johan P. U. Fynbo,Pall Jakobsson,Jason X. Prochaska,D. Malesani,C. Ledoux,A. de Ugarte Postigo,Marco Nardini,P. M. Vreeswijk,P. M. Vreeswijk,Klaas Wiersema,Jens Hjorth,Jesper Sollerman,Jesper Sollerman,Hsiao-Wen Chen,Christina C. Thöne,Christina C. Thöne,Gunnlaugur Björnsson,Joshua S. Bloom,A. J. Castro-Tirado,Lise Christensen,A. De Cia,A. S. Fruchter,Javier Gorosabel,John F. Graham,Andreas O. Jaunsen,Andreas O. Jaunsen,B. L. Jensen,D. A. Kann,Chryssa Kouveliotou,Andrew J. Levan,Justyn R. Maund,N. Masetti,Bo Milvang-Jensen,Eliana Palazzi,Daniel A. Perley,Elena Pian,Evert Rol,Patricia Schady,R. L. C. Starling,Nial R. Tanvir,Darach Watson,Dong Xu,T. Augusteijn,Frank Grundahl,J. H. Telting,P. O. Quirion +46 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented a sample of 77 optical afterglows (OAs) of Swift detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for which spectroscopic follow-up observations have been secured.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Afterglows of Swift-era Gamma-ray Bursts. I. Comparing pre-Swift and Swift-era Long/Soft (Type II) GRB Optical Afterglows
David Alexander Kann,Sylvio Klose,Bing Zhang,D. B. Malesani,Ehud Nakar,Ehud Nakar,A. Pozanenko,A. C. Wilson,Nathaniel R. Butler,Pall Jakobsson,Pall Jakobsson,Steve Schulze,Maksim V. Andreev,L. A. Antonelli,I. F. Bikmaev,V. Biryukov,Markus Böttcher,R. A. Burenin,J. M. Castro Cerón,J. M. Castro Cerón,A. J. Castro-Tirado,G. Chincarini,G. Chincarini,B. E. Cobb,B. E. Cobb,Stefano Covino,P. D'Avanzo,Valerio D'Elia,M. Della Valle,M. Della Valle,A. de Ugarte Postigo,Yu. S. Efimov,P. Ferrero,Dino Fugazza,Johan P. U. Fynbo,M. Gålfalk,F. Grundahl,Javier Gorosabel,S. Gupta,Sergei Guziy,B. M. Hafizov,Jens Hjorth,K. Holhjem,Mansur Ibrahimov,Myungshin Im,G. L. Israel,M. Jeĺinek,B. L. Jensen,R. Karimov,Irek Khamitov,Ü. Kızıloǧlu,E. Klunko,Petr Kubánek,Alexander Kutyrev,Peter Laursen,Andrew J. Levan,Filippo Mannucci,C. M. Martin,A. Mescheryakov,Nestor Mirabal,Jay P. Norris,J. E. Ovaldsen,D. Paraficz,Elena P. Pavlenko,Silvia Piranomonte,Andrea Rossi,Vasilij Rumyantsev,R. Salinas,A. Sergeev,D. Sharapov,Jesper Sollerman,Jesper Sollerman,Bringfried Stecklum,Luigi Stella,Gianpiero Tagliaferri,Nial R. Tanvir,J. Telting,Vincenzo Testa,Adria C. Updike,A. Volnova,Darach Watson,Klaas Wiersema,Klaas Wiersema,Dong Xu +83 more
TL;DR: The first indications of a class of long GRBs are presented, which form a bridge between the typical high-luminosity, high-redshift events and nearby low- luminosity events (which are also associated with spectroscopic supernovae) in terms of energetics and observed redshift distribution, indicating a continuous distribution overall.
Journal ArticleDOI
Jet Breaks and Energetics of Swift Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglows
Judith Racusin,E. W. Liang,E. W. Liang,David N. Burrows,A. D. Falcone,T. Sakamoto,Bin-Bin Zhang,Bing Zhang,Phil Evans,J. P. Osborne +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a systematic temporal and spectral study of all Swift-X-ray Telescope observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows discovered between 2005 January and 2007 December.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Host Galaxies of Swift Dark Gamma-ray Bursts: Observational Constraints on Highly Obscured and Very High Redshift GRBs
Daniel A. Perley,S. B. Cenko,Joshua S. Bloom,Hsiao-Wen Chen,Nathaniel R. Butler,Daniel Kocevski,Jason X. Prochaska,Mark Brodwin,Karl Glazebrook,Mansi M. Kasliwal,Shrinivas R. Kulkarni,Sebastian Lopez,Eran O. Ofek,M. Pettini,Alicia M. Soderberg,D. Starr,D. Starr +16 more
TL;DR: In this article, the first results of an imaging campaign at Keck Observatory to identify the host galaxies of "dark" gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), events with no detected optical afterglow or with detected optical flux significantly fainter than expected from the observed X-ray afterglove.
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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.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the broadband spectrum and corresponding light curve of synchrotron radiation from a power-law distribution of electrons in an expanding relativistic shock were calculated for the gamma-ray burst afterglow.
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