2009/07/31 by Emily M. Levesque, Edo Berger, E. Berger +2
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Galaxy #Gamma-ray burst #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Interstellar medium #Metallicity #Mitochondrial Function and Pathology #Physics #Population #Redshift #Star formation #Stellar population #Supernova #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-6256/139/2/694
29 pages, 19 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in AJ
arxiv created 2009/11/25 · openalex publication_date 2010/01/14 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present the first observations from a large-scale survey of nearby ( z < 1) long-duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) host galaxies, which consist of eight rest-frame optical spectra obtained at Keck and Magellan. Along with two host galaxy observations from the literature, we use optical emission-line diagnostics to determine metallicities, ionization parameters, young stellar population ages, and star formation rates. We compare the LGRB host environments to a variety of local and intermediate-redshift galaxy populations, as well as the newest grid of stellar population synthesis and photoionization models generated with the Starburst99/Mappings codes. With these comparisons, we investigate whether the GRB host galaxies are consistent with the properties of the general galaxy population, and therefore whether they may be used as reliable tracers of star formation. Despite the limitations inherent in our small sample, we find strong evidence that LGRB host galaxies generally have low-metallicity interstellar medium (ISM) environments out to z ∼ 1. The ISM properties of our GRB hosts, including metallicity and ionization parameter, are significantly different from the general galaxy population and host galaxies of nearby broad-lined Type Ic supernovae. However, these properties show better agreement with a sample of nearby metal-poor galaxies.