The Library
A population of massive, luminous galaxies hosting heavily dust-obscured gamma-ray bursts : implications for the use of GRBs as tracers of cosmic star formation
Tools
Perley, D. A., Levan, Andrew J., Tanvir, N. R., Cenko, S. B., Bloom, J. S., Hjorth, J., Krühler, T., Filippenko, A. V., Fruchter, A., Fynbo, J. P. U., Jakobsson, P., Kalirai, J., Milvang-Jensen, B., Morgan, A. N., Prochaska, J. X. and Silverman, J. M. (2013) A population of massive, luminous galaxies hosting heavily dust-obscured gamma-ray bursts : implications for the use of GRBs as tracers of cosmic star formation. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 778 (Number 2). Article number 128. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/128 ISSN 0004-637X.
Research output not available from this repository.
Request-a-Copy directly from author or use local Library Get it For Me service.
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/128
Abstract
We present observations and analysis of the host galaxies of 23 heavily dust-obscured gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) observed by the Swift satellite during the years 2005-2009, representing all GRBs with an unambiguous host-frame extinction of AV > 1 mag from this period. Deep observations with Keck, Gemini, Very Large Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer successfully detect the host galaxies and establish spectroscopic or photometric redshifts for all 23 events, enabling us to provide measurements of the intrinsic host star formation rates, stellar masses, and mean extinctions. Compared to the hosts of unobscured GRBs at similar redshifts, we find that the hosts of dust-obscured GRBs are (on average) more massive by about an order of magnitude and also more rapidly star forming and dust obscured. While this demonstrates that GRBs populate all types of star-forming galaxies, including the most massive, luminous systems at z ≈ 2, at redshifts below 1.5 the overall GRB population continues to show a highly significant aversion to massive galaxies and a preference for low-mass systems relative to what would be expected given a purely star-formation-rate-selected galaxy sample. This supports the notion that the GRB rate is strongly dependent on metallicity, and may suggest that the most massive galaxies in the universe underwent a transition in their chemical properties ~9 Gyr ago. We also conclude that, based on the absence of unobscured GRBs in massive galaxies and the absence of obscured GRBs in low-mass galaxies, the dust distributions of the lowest-mass and the highest-mass galaxies are relatively homogeneous, while intermediate-mass galaxies (~109 M ☉) have diverse internal properties.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | The Astrophysical Journal | ||||
Publisher: | Institute of Physics Publishing, Inc. | ||||
ISSN: | 0004-637X | ||||
Official Date: | 2013 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Volume: | Volume 778 | ||||
Number: | Number 2 | ||||
Page Range: | Article number 128 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/128 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |