Properties of a Gamma Ray Burst Host Galaxy at z ~ 5
Abstract
We describe the properties of the host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst GRB060510B based on a spectrum of the burst afterglow obtained with the Gemini North 8m telescope. The galaxy lies at a redshift of z = 4.941 making it the fourth highest spectroscopically identified burst host. However, it is the second highest redshift galaxy for which the quality of the spectrum permits a detailed metallicity analysis. The neutral hydrogen column density has a logarithmic value of 21.0--21.2 cm^-2 and the weak metal lines of Ni, S and Fe show that the metallicity is in excess of a tenth of solar which is far above the metallicities in damped Lyman alpha absorbers at high redshift. The tightest constraint is from the Fe lines which place [Fe/H] in excess of -0.8. We argue that the results suggest that metallicity bias could be a serious problem with inferring star formation from the GRB population and consider how future higher quality measurements could be used to resolve this question.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.4101,
title = {Properties of a Gamma Ray Burst Host Galaxy at z ~ 5},
author = {P. A. Price and A. Songaila and L. L. Cowie and J. Bell Burnell and E. Berger and A. Cucchiara and D. B. Fox and I. Hook and S. R. Kulkarni and B. Penprase and K. C. Roth and B. Schmidt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.4101},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters