Related papers: THESEUS and the high redshift universe
High-redshift gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) offer an extraordinary opportunity to study aspects of the early Universe, including the cosmic star formation rate (SFR). Motivated by the two recent highest-z GRBs, GRB 080913 at z = 6.7 and GRB…
I review the searches for gamma-ray bursts at very high redshift. Although the numbers of GRBs known at z>6 remain few, even small samples can provide information about early star and galaxy formation in the universe which is very hard to…
We explore large-scale cosmic structure using the spatial distribution of 542 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) having accurately measured positions and spectroscopic redshifts. Prominent cosmological clusters are identified in both the northern and…
Present knowledge indicates that gamma-ray bursts are linked with massive stars. They will become invaluable probes of the early universe and galaxy formation. In the future, it will be possible to use gamma-ray bursts for two purposes: 1)…
Due to their extreme luminosities, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be detected in hostile regions of galaxies, nearby and at very high redshift, making them important cosmological probes. The investigation of galaxies hosting long-duration GRBs…
The first structures in the Universe formed at z>7, at higher redshift than all currently known galaxies. Since GRBs are brighter than other cosmological sources at high redshift and exhibit simple power-law afterglow spectra that is ideal…
GRBs are expected to occur at redshifts far higher than the highest quasar redshifts so far detected. And unlike quasars, GRB afterglows may provide "clean" probes of the epoch of reionization because no complications (such as the presence…
We propose to use high-redshift long $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) as cosmological tools to constrain the amount of primordial non-Gaussianity in the density field. By using numerical, N-body, hydrodynamic, chemistry simulations of different…
The 26 long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with known redshifts form a distinct cosmological set, selected differently than other cosmological probes such as quasars and galaxies. Since the progenitors are now believed to be connected…
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 quest to discover the most distant galaxies has developed rapidly in the last decade. We are now exploring redshifts of 6 and beyond, when the Universe was less than a billion years old, an epoch when the previously-neutral…
Gamma-ray bursts are promising tools for tracing the formation of high redshift stars, including the first generation. At very high redshifts the reverse shock emission lasts longer in the observer frame, and its importance for detection…
There is increasingly strong evidence that gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are associated with star-forming galaxies, and occur near or in the star-forming regions of these galaxies. These associations provide indirect evidence that at least the…
Gamma Ray Bursts are among the most powerful astrophysical sources and they release up to 1.e54 erg, if isotropic, in less than few hundred seconds. Their detection in the hard X/gamma ray band (at energies >10 keV) and out to very high…
Current observations are about to open up a direct window into the final frontier of cosmology: the first billion years in cosmic history when the first stars and galaxies formed. Even before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, it…
The nature of Gamma-Ray Burst progenitors is still a debated issue, but consensus is growing on the association of GRBs with massive stars. Furthermore, current models for the reionization of the universe consider massive Pop--III stars as…
We predict the redshift distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) assuming that they trace the cosmic star formation history. We find that a fraction >~50% of all GRBs on the sky originate at a redshift z >~5, even though the fraction of the…
Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous known electromagnetic radiation sources in the Universe for the 3 to 300 sec of their prompt flashes (isotropic X/ gamma-ray luminosities up to 10^53 ergs/sec). Their afterglows have first…
The 1-100 pc region embedding long-duration gamma-ray bursts (lGRBs) has been hitherto unexplored, as extremely high ionisation by the GRB prevents application of optical absorption spectroscopy on such distances. We show that the GRB…
A gamma-ray burst (GRB) releases an amount of energy similar to that of a supernova explosion, which combined with its rapid variability suggests an origin related to neutron stars or black holes. Since these compact stellar remnants form…