Exploration of the high-redshift universe enabled by THESEUS
Abstract
At peak, long-duration gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous sources of electromagnetic radiation known. Since their progenitors are massive stars, they provide a tracer of star formation and star-forming galaxies over the whole of cosmic history. Their bright power-law afterglows provide ideal backlights for absorption studies of the interstellar and intergalactic medium back to the reionization era. The proposed THESEUS mission is designed to detect large samples of GRBs at in the 2030s, at a time when supporting observations with major next generation facilities will be possible, thus enabling a range of transformative science. THESEUS will allow us to explore the faint end of the luminosity function of galaxies and the star formation rate density to high redshifts; constrain the progress of re-ionisation beyond ; study in detail early chemical enrichment from stellar explosions, including signatures of Population III stars; and potentially characterize the dark energy equation of state at the highest redshifts.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2104.09532,
title = {Exploration of the high-redshift universe enabled by THESEUS},
author = {N. R. Tanvir and E. Le Floc'h and L. Christensen and J. Caruana and R. Salvaterra and G. Ghirlanda and B. Ciardi and U. Maio and V. D'Odorico and E. Piedipalumbo and S. Campana and P. Noterdaeme and L. Graziani and L. Amati and Z. Bagoly and L. G. Balázs and S. Basa and E. Behar and E. Bozzo and A. De Cia and M. Della Valle and M. De Pasquale and F. Frontera and A. Gomboc and D. Götz and I. Horvath and R. Hudec and S. Mereghetti and P. T. O'Brien and J. P. Osborne and S. Paltani and P. Rosati and O. Sergijenko and E. R. Stanway and D. Szécsi and L. V. Toth and Y. Urata and S. Vergani and S. Zane},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.09532},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Submitted to Experimental Astronomy