Related papers: Revealing the First Stellar and Supermassive Black…
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is designed to i) use the birth of stellar mass black holes, as revealed by cosmic Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), as probes of the very first stars and galaxies to exist in the Universe. Both…
The recent hard X-ray surveys performed by INTEGRAL and Swift have started to reveal the demographics of compact sources including Super-Massive Black Holes hosted in AGNs and have proven invaluable in tracking explosive events as the death…
With the Swift detection of GRB090423 at z = 8.2, it was confirmed that GRBs are now detectable at (significantly) larger redshifts than AGN, and so can indeed be used as probes of the Early Universe. The proposed Energetic X-ray Imaging…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are believed to originate in compact remnants (black holes or neutron stars) of massive stars. Their high luminosities make them detectable out to the edge of the visible universe. We describe the many advantages of…
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic eruptions known in the Universe. Instruments such as Compton-GRO/BATSE and the GRB monitor on BeppoSAX have detected more than 2700 GRBs and, although observational confirmation is still…
There is strong evidence for the existence of black holes(BHs) in some X-ray binaries and most galatic nuclei, based on different measuremental approaches, but black holes aren't finally identified for the lack of very firm observational…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are unique probes of the cosmic star formation history and the state of the intergalactic medium up to the redshifts of the first stars. In particular, the ongoing {\it Swift} mission might be the first observatory…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most violent explosions in the Universe. Long duration GRBs are associated with the collapse of massive stars, rivaling their host galaxies in luminosity. The discovery of the most distant spectroscopically…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short and intense flashes at the cosmological distances, which are the most luminous explosions in the Universe. The high luminosities of GRBs make them detectable out to the edge of the visible universe. So,…
The redshift where the first stars formed is an important and unknown milestone in cosmological structure formation. The evidence linking gamma ray bursts (GRBs) with star formation activity implies that the first GRBs occurred shortly…
Gamma-Ray Bursts represent unique tools to study the early phases of cosmic evolution, the formation of the first stars and galaxies. Absorption line spectra of these sources located in the Epoch of Reionization might provide us with key…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the ultimate cosmic lighthouses, capable of illuminating the universe at its earliest epochs. Could such events probe the properties of the first stars at z $\sim$ 20, the end of the cosmic Dark Ages? Previous…
A next generation Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) mission to follow the upcoming Swift mission is described. The proposed Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope, EXIST, would yield the limiting (practical) GRB trigger sensitivity, broad-band…
With its large collection area, broad-band energy coverage from optical/NIR (0.3 to 2.2 micron) to soft/hard X-ray (0.1-600 keV), all-sky monitoring capability, and on-board follow-up, the proposed Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope…
It is thought that the first generations of massive stars in the Universe were an important, and quite possibly dominant, source of the ultra-violet radiation that reionized the hydrogen gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM); a state in…
The Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope (EXIST) is under study for the proposed Black Hole Finder Probe, one of the three Einstein Probe missions in NASA's proposed Beyond Einstein Program. EXIST would have unique capabilities: it…
Since their first discovery in the late 1960s, Gamma-ray bursts have attracted an exponentially growing interest from the international community due to their central role in the most highly debated open questions of the modern research of…
The exhilerating results from Swift in its first year of operations have opened a new era of exploration of the high energy universe. The surge to higher redshifts of the Gamma-ray bursts now imaged with increased sensitivity establishes…
Blazars are Active Galactic Nuclei characterized by relativistic jets launched in the vicinity of the central engine (i.e. a supermassive black hole), that are oriented close to our line of sight. Their peculiar orientation makes them very…
Popular models for the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) include short-lived massive stars as the progenitors of the fireballs. Hence the redshift distribution of GRBs should track the cosmic star formation rate of massive stars accurately.…