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GRBs as Probes of the IGM

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Abstract

Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions known, capable of outshining the rest of gamma-ray sky during their short-lived prompt emission. Their cosmological nature makes them the best tool to explore the final stages in the lives of very massive stars up to the highest redshifts. Furthermore, studying the emission from their low-energy counterparts (optical and infrared) via rapid spectroscopy, we have been able to pin down the exact location of the most distant galaxies as well as placing stringent constraints on their host galaxies and intervening systems at low and high-redshift (e.g. metallicity and neutral hydrogen fraction). In fact, each GRB spectrum contains absorption features imprinted by metals in the host interstellar medium (ISM) as well as the intervening intergalactic medium (IGM) along the line of sight. In this chapter we summarize the progress made using a large dataset of GRB spectra in understanding the nature of both these absorbers and how GRBs can be used to study the early Universe, in particular to measure the neutral hydrogen fraction and the escape fraction of UV photons before and during the epoch of re-ionization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, United States

    Antonino Cucchiara

  2. Department of Astronomy, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Tonomori Totani

  3. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

    Nial Tanvir

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Cucchiara, A., Totani, T. & Tanvir, N. GRBs as Probes of the IGM. Space Sci Rev 202, 143–158 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-016-0253-4

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