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GRBs as Probes of Massive Stars Near and Far

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

Johan P. U. Fynbo  and
Daniele Malesani
Johan P. U. Fynbo
Affiliation:
Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark email: [email protected]
Daniele Malesani
Affiliation:
Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are the manifestations of massive stellar death. Due to the immense energy release they are detectable from most of the observable universe. In this way they allow us to study the deaths of single (or binary) massive stars possibly throughout the full timespan massive stars have existed in the Universe. GRBs provide a means to infer information about the environments and typical galaxies in which massive stars are formed. Two main obstacles remain to be crossed before the full potential of GRBs as probes of massive stars can be harvested: i) we need to build more complete and well understood samples in order not to be fooled by biases, and ii) we need to understand to which extent GRBs may be intrinsically biased in the sense that they are only formed by a limited subset of massive stars defined by most likely a restricted metallicity interval. I describe the status of an ongoing effort to build a more complete sample of long-duration GRBs with measured redshifts. Already now we can conclude that the environments of GRB progenitors are very diverse with metallicities ranging from solar to a hundredth solar and extinction ranging from none to AV > 5 mag. We have also identified a sightline with significant escape of Lyman continuum photons and another with a clear 2175 Å extinction bump.

Keywords

gamma rays: bursts – galaxies: distances and redshifts
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 3 , Symposium S250: Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines , December 2007 , pp. 443 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

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