The high-redshift gamma-ray burst GRB 140515A. A comprehensive X-ray and optical study
Abstract
High-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) offer several advantages when studying the distant Universe, providing unique information about the structure and properties of the galaxies in which they exploded. Spectroscopic identification with large ground-based telescopes has improved our knowledge of this kind of distant events. We present the multi-wavelength analysis of the high-zSwift GRB GRB 140515A (z = 6.327). The best estimate of the neutral hydrogen fraction of the intergalactic medium towards the burst is xHI ≤ 0.002. The spectral absorption lines detected for this event are the weakest lines ever observed in GRB afterglows, suggesting that GRB 140515A exploded in a very low-density environment. Its circum-burst medium is characterised by an average extinction (AV ~ 0.1) that seems to be typical of z ≥ 6 events. The observed multi-band light curves are explained either with a very hard injected spectrum (p = 1.7) or with a multi-component emission (p = 2.1). In the second case a long-lasting central engine activity is needed in order to explain the late time X-ray emission. The possible origin of GRB 140515A in a Pop III (or in a Pop II star with a local environment enriched by Pop III) massive star is unlikely.
Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, ESO, the VLT/Kueyen telescope, Paranal, Chile (proposal code: 093.A-0069), on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated by the Nordic Optical Telescope Scientific Association at the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (programme 49-008), and on observations made with the Italian 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), operated by the Fundación Galileo Galilei of the INAF (Instituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) at the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, La Palma, Spain, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (programme A26TAC_63).Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org- Publication:
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Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- September 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361/201526660
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1506.03079
- Bibcode:
- 2015A&A...581A..86M
- Keywords:
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- gamma-ray burst: general;
- gamma-ray burst: individual: GRB 140515A;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- intergalactic medium;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 10 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables, submitted to Astronomy &