Aims. We present the rest-frame light curves in the optical and X-ray bands of an unbiased and complete sample of the Swift long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), namely, the BAT6 sample. Methods. The ...unbiased BAT6 sample (consisting of 58 events) has the highest level of completeness in redshift (~95%), allowing us to compute the rest-frame X-ray and optical light curves for 55 and 47 objects, respectively. We compute the X-ray and optical luminosities, which accounte for any possible source of absorption (Galactic and intrinsic) that could affect the observed fluxes in these two bands. Results. We compare the behaviour observed in the X-ray to that in the optical bands to assess the relative contribution of the emission during the prompt and afterglow phases. We unarguably demonstrate that rest-frame optical luminosity distribution of the GRBs is not bimodal and is clustered around the mean value Log(LR) = 29.9 ± 0.8 when estimated at a rest-frame time of 12 h. This is in contrast to what is found in previous works and confirms that the GRB population has an intrinsic unimodal luminosity distribution. For more than 70% of the events, the rest-frame light curves in the X-ray and optical bands have a different evolution, indicating distinct emitting regions and/or mechanisms. The X-ray light curves, which are normalised to the GRB isotropic energy (Eiso), provide evidence for X-ray emission that is still powered by the prompt emission until late times (~hours after the burst event). On the other hand, the same test performed for the Eiso-normalised optical light curves shows that the optical emission is a better proxy of the afterglow emission from early to late times.
ABSTRACT Powerful blazars are flat-spectrum radio quasars whose emission is dominated by a Compton component peaking between a few hundred keV and a few hundred MeV. We observed two bright blazars, ...PKS 2149-306 at redshift z = 2.345 and S5 0836+710 at z = 2.172, in the hard X-ray band with the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array satellite. Simultaneous soft-X-rays and UV-optical observations were performed with the Swift satellite, while near-infrared (near-IR) data were obtained with the Rapid Eye Mount telescope. To study their variability, we repeated these observations for both sources on a timescale of a few months. While no fast variability was detected during a single observation, both sources were variable in the X-ray band, up to 50%, between the two observations, with larger variability at higher energies. No variability was detected in the optical/NIR band. These data, together with Fermi-Large Area Telescope, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and other literature data, are then used to study the overall spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these blazars. Although the jet nonthermal emission dominates the SED, it leaves the UV band unhidden, allowing us to detect the thermal emission of the disk and to estimate the black hole mass. The nonthermal emission is well reproduced by a one-zone leptonic model by the synchrotron, self-Compton, and external Compton processes. Our data are better reproduced if we assume that the location of the dissipation region of the jet, Rdiss, is in between the torus and the broad-line region. The observed variability is explained by changing a minimum number of model parameters by a very small amount.
GRB 171010A/SN 2017htp: a GRB-SN at z = 0.33 Melandri, A; Malesani, D B; Izzo, L ...
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
12/2019, Volume:
490, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
ABSTRACT
The number of supernovae known to be connected with long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is increasing and the link between these events is no longer exclusively found at low redshift (z ≲ ...0.3) but is well established also at larger distances. We present a new case of such a liaison at z = 0.33 between GRB 171010A and SN 2017htp. It is the second closest GRB with an associated supernova of only three events detected by Fermi-LAT. The supernova is one of the few higher redshift cases where spectroscopic observations were possible and shows spectral similarities with the well-studied SN 1998bw, having produced a similar Ni mass ($M_{\rm Ni}=0.33\pm 0.02 ~\rm {M_{\odot }}$) with slightly lower ejected mass ($M_{\rm ej}=4.1\pm 0.7~\rm {M_{\odot }}$) and kinetic energy ($E_{\rm K} = 8.1\pm 2.5 \times 10^{51} ~\rm {erg}$). The host-galaxy is bigger in size than typical GRB host galaxies, but the analysis of the region hosting the GRB revealed spectral properties typically observed in GRB hosts and showed that the progenitor of this event was located in a very bright H ii region of its face-on host galaxy, at a projected distance of ∼ 10 kpc from its galactic centre. The star-formation rate (SFRGRB ∼ 0.2 M⊙ yr−1) and metallicity (12 + log(O/H) ∼8.15 ± 0.10) of the GRB star-forming region are consistent with those of the host galaxies of previously studied GRB–SN systems.
Aims. We present a study of the environment of the Swift long gamma-ray burst GRB 120327A at z ≈ 2.8 through optical spectroscopy of its afterglow. Methods. We analyzed medium-resolution, multi-epoch ...spectroscopic observations (R ~ 7000−12 000, corresponding to ~15−23 km s-1, S/N = 15−30 and wavelength range 3000−25 000 Å) of the optical afterglow of GRB 120327A, taken with X-shooter at the VLT 2.13 and 27.65 hr after the GRB trigger. Results. The first epoch spectrum shows that the ISM in the GRB host galaxy at z = 2.8145 is extremely rich in absorption features, with three components contributing to the line profiles. The hydrogen column density associated with GRB 120327A has log NH/cm-2 = 22.01 ± 0.09, and the metallicity of the host galaxy is in the range X/H = −1.3 to −1.1. In addition to the ground state lines, we detect absorption features associated with excited states of C ii, O i, Si ii, Fe ii, and Ni ii, which we used to derive information on the distance between the host absorbing gas and the site of the GRB explosion. The variability of the Fe iiλ2396 excited line between the two epochs proves that these features are excited by the GRB UV flux. Moreover, the distance of component I is found to be dI = 200+100-60 pc, while component II is located closer to the GRB, at dII = 100+40-30 pc. These values are among the lowest found in GRBs. Component III does not show excited transitions, so it should be located farther away from the GRB. The presence of H2 molecules is firmly established, with a molecular fraction f in the range f = 4 × 10-7–10-4. This particularly low value can be attributed to the small dust content. This represents the third positive detection of molecules in a GRB environment.
Hard X-ray properties of blazars Donato, D.; Ghisellini, G.; Tagliaferri, G. ...
Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin),
09/2001, Volume:
375, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We have considered all blazars observed in the X-ray band and for which the slope of the X-ray spectrum is available. We have collected 421 spectra of 268 blazars, including 12 archival unpublished ...ASCA spectra of 7 blazars whose analysis is presented here. The X-ray spectra of blazars show trends as a function of their power, confirming that the blazar overall energy distribution can be parameterized on the basis of one parameter only, i.e. the bolometric luminosity. This is confirmed by the relatively new hard (2-10 keV) X-ray data. Our results confirm the idea that in low power objects the X-ray emission mechanism is the synchrotron process, dominating both the soft and the hard X-ray emissions. Low energy peaked BL Lac objects are intermediate, often showing harder spectra in the hard X-ray band, suggesting that the synchrotron process dominates in the soft band, with the inverse Compton process dominating at high energies. The most powerful objects have X-ray spectra that are flat both in the soft and in the hard band, consistent with a dominating inverse Compton component.
We make use of a 500 ks Chandra HRC-S/LETG spectrum of the blazar H 2356-309, combined with a lower signal-to-noise ratio (S/N; 100 ks) pilot LETG spectrum of the same target, to search for the ...presence of warm-hot absorbing gas associated with two large-scale structures (LSSs) crossed by this sight line and to constrain its physical state and geometry. Strong (log N{sub O{sub VII}} {>=} 10{sup 16} cm{sup -2}) O VII K{alpha} absorption associated with a third LSS crossed by this line of sight (the Sculptor Wall (SW)), at z = 0.03, has already been detected in a previous work. Here, we focus on two additional prominent filamentary LSSs along the same line of sight, one at z = 0.062 (the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster (PCS)) and another at z = 0.128 (the 'Farther Sculptor Wall' (FSW)). The combined LETG spectrum has an S/N of {approx}11.6-12.6 per resolution element in the 20-25 A and an average 3{sigma} sensitivity to intervening O VII K{alpha} absorption line equivalent widths (EWs) of EW{sub O{sub VII}} {approx_gt} 14 mA in the available redshift range (z < 0.165). No statistically significant (i.e., {>=}3{sigma}) individual absorption is detected from any of the strong He- or H-like transitions of C, O, and Ne (the most abundant metals in gas with solar-like composition) at the redshifts of the PCS and FSW structures and down to the EW thresholds mentioned above. However, we are still able to constrain the physical and geometrical parameters of the putative absorbing gas associated with these structures, by performing a joint spectral fit of various marginal detections and upper limits of the strongest expected lines with our self-consistent hybrid-ionization WHIM spectral model. At the redshift of the PCS, we identify a warm phase with log T = 5.35{sup +0.07}{sub -0.13} K and log N{sub H} = (19.1 {+-} 0.2) cm{sup -2} possibly co-existing with a much hotter and statistically less significant phase with log T = 6.9{sup +0.1}{sub -0.8} K and log N{sub H} = 20.1{sup +0.3}{sub -1.7} cm{sup -2} (1{sigma} errors). These two separate physical phases are identified through, and mainly constrained by, C V K{alpha} (warm phase) and O VIII K{alpha} (hot phase) absorption, with single line significances of 1.5{sigma} each. For the second LSS, at z {approx_equal} 0.128, only one hot component is hinted in the data, through O VIII K{alpha} (1.6{sigma}) and Ne IX K{alpha} (1.2{sigma}). For this system, we estimate log T = 6.6{sup +0.1}{sub -0.2} K and log N{sub H} = 19.8{sup +0.4}{sub -0.8} cm{sup -2}. Our column density and temperature constraints on the warm-hot gaseous content of these two LSSs, combined with the measurements obtained for the hot gas permeating the SW, allow us to estimate the cumulative number density per unit redshifts of O VII WHIM absorbers at three different EW thresholds of 0.4 mA, 7 mA, and 25.8 mA. This is consistent with expectations only at the very low end of EW thresholds, but exceeds predictions at 7 mA and 25.8 mA (by more than 2{sigma}). We also estimate the cosmological mass density of the WHIM based on the four absorbers we tentatively detect along this line of sight, obtaining {Omega}{sup WHIM}{sub b} = (0.021{sup +0.031}{sub -0.018})(Z/Z{sub sun}){sup -1}, consistent with the cosmological mass density of the intergalactic 'missing baryons' only if we assume high metallicities (Z {approx} Z{sub sun}).
Abundances of galaxies at redshifts z > 4 are difficult to obtain from damped Lyα (DLA) systems in the sightlines of quasars (QSOs) due to the Lyα forest blanketing and the low number of ...high-redshift QSOs known to date. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with their higher luminosity are well suited to study galaxies out to the formation of the first stars at z > 10. The large wavelength coverage of the X-shooter spectrograph makes it an excellent tool to study the interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies, in particular if the redshift is not known beforehand. In this paper, we determine the properties of a GRB host at z = 4.667 23 from absorption lines combined with X-ray and optical imaging data. This is one of the highest redshifts where a detailed analysis with medium-resolution data is possible. We measure a relatively high metallicity of S/H = −1.1 ± 0.2 for a galaxy at this redshift. Assuming ultraviolet pumping as origin for the fine-structure lines, the material observed is between 0.3 and 1.0 kpc from the GRB. The extinction determined by the spectral slope from X-rays to the infrared shows a moderate value of A
V
= 0.13 ± 0.05 mag and relative abundances point to a warm disc extinction pattern. Low- and high-ionization as well as fine-structure lines show a complicated kinematic structure probably pointing to a merger in progress. We also detect one intervening system at z = 2.18. GRB-DLAs have a shallower evolution of metallicity with redshift than QSO absorbers and no evolution in their H i column density or ionization fraction. GRB hosts at high redshifts seem to continue the trend of the metallicity-luminosity relation towards lower metallicities but the sample is still too small to draw a definite conclusion. While the detection of GRBs at z > 4 with current satellites is still difficult, they are very important for our understanding of the early epochs of star and galaxy formation.
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