Related papers: The Molecular Hydrogen Deficit in Gamma-Ray Burst …
We examine the abundance of molecular hydrogen (H2) in the spectra of gamma ray burst afterglows (GRBs). In nearby galaxies H2 traces the cold neutral medium (CNM) and dense molecular star-forming interstellar gas. Though H2 is detected in…
We put stringent constraints for the first time on the dust properties in the circumburst medium of a gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow. This is based on the optical spectrum of GRB 020813 (z=1.255), obtained with Keck I LRIS 4.65 h after the…
We study the absorption of a gamma-ray burst afterglow in a dense molecular cloud in the X-ray wavelength range. We report the results of numerical simulations of the propagation of the gamma-ray burst radiation in the cloud for various gas…
A gamma ray burst with strong optical-UV emission occuring in a molecular cloud will photodissociate H2, photoionize H2, H, and He, and destroy dust grains. We model these processes, including time-dependent radiative transfer in both…
We compare the HI column densities from Ly-alpha absorption to the metal column densities from X-ray absorption in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Eight bursts of seventeen entering the sample, have significant extragalactic X-ray…
We investigate the possibility to search for metal-poor high column density (> 10^{23} cm^{-2}) clouds at high redshift (z) by using gamma ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Such clouds could be related to primeval galaxies which may cause a burst…
We study the > 10 ratios in the X-ray to optical column densities inferred from afterglow spectra of Gamma Ray Bursts due to gas surrounding their progenitors. We present time-evolving photoionization calculations for these afterglows and…
We analyze a complete sample of gamma-ray burst afterglows, and find X-ray evidence for high column densities of gas around them. The column densities are in the range 1e+22-1e+23/cm2, which is right around the average column density of…
In this paper we present the results from the analysis of a sample of 28 gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow spectral energy distributions, spanning the X-ray through to near-infrared wavelengths. This is the largest sample of GRB afterglow…
We present the discovery and high signal-to-noise spectroscopic observations of the optical afterglow of the long-duration gamma-ray burst GRB070125. Unlike all previously observed long-duration afterglows in the redshift range 0.5 < z <…
Using a sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows detected by both the X-Ray and the UV/Optical Telescopes (XRT and UVOT) on Swift, we modelled the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to determine gas column densities and dust extinction…
We report on strong H2 and CO absorption from gas within the host galaxy of gamma-ray burst (GRB) 080607. Analysis of our Keck/LRIS afterglow spectrum reveals a very large HI column density (NHI = 10^22.70 cm^-2) and strong metal-line…
We studied the X-ray and optical absorption properties of 13 Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows observed by BeppoSAX. We found that X-ray absorption in addition to the Galactic one along the line of sight is highly statistically significant…
Analysis is performed on ultra-high resolution large-scale cosmological radiation-hydrodynamic simulations to, for the first time, quantify the physical environment of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at the epoch of reionization. We…
Molecular species, most frequently H_2, are present in a small, but growing, number of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow spectra at redshifts z~2-3, detected through their rest-frame UV absorption lines. In rare cases, lines of vibrationally…
We present the discovery of molecular hydrogen (H_2), including the presence of vibrationally-excited H_2^* in the optical spectrum of the afterglow of GRB 120815A at z=2.36 obtained with X-shooter at the VLT. Simultaneous photometric…
The amount and properties of high-redshift galactic and intergalactic (IG) dust are largely unknown, but could be investigated using multi-wavelength photometry of high-z objects that have a known intrinsic spectrum. Observations of…
In this paper we compute rest-frame extinctions for the afterglows of a sample of gamma-ray bursts complete in redshift. The selection criteria of the sample are based on observational high-energy parameters of the prompt emission and…
We survey NV absorption in the afterglow spectra of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with the intent to study highly ionized gas in the galaxies hosting these events. We identify a high incidence (6/7) of spectra exhibiting NV gas with…
Extra-galactic X-ray absorption and optical extinction are often found in gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows and they could be tracers of both circumburst and host galaxy environments. By performing spectral analyses for spectral energy…