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- Hartoog, O. E., et al.
(author)
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VLT/X-Shooter spectroscopy of the afterglow of the Swift GRB 130606A Chemical abundances and reionisation at z similar to 6
- 2015
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 580
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Context: The reionisation of the Universe is a process that is thought to have ended around z similar to 6, as inferred from spectroscopy of distant bright background sources, such as quasars (QSO) and gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Furthermore, spectroscopy of a GRB afterglow provides insight in its host galaxy, which is often too dim and distant to study otherwise.Aims: For the Swift GRB 130606A at z = 5.913 we have obtained a high S/N spectrum covering the full optical and near-IR wavelength region at intermediate spectral resolution with VLT/X-Shooter. We aim to measure the degree of ionisation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) between z = 5.02-5.84 and to study the chemical abundance pattern and dust content of its host galaxy.Methods: We estimated the UV continuum of the GRB afterglow using a power-law extrapolation, then measured the flux decrement due to absorption at Ly alpha,beta, and gamma wavelength regions. Furthermore, we fitted the shape of the red damping wing of Lya. The hydrogen and metal absorption lines formed in the host galaxy were fitted with Voigt profiles to obtain column densities. We investigated whether ionisation corrections needed to be applied.Results: Our measurements of the Ly alpha-forest optical depth are consistent with previous measurements of QSOs, but have a much smaller uncertainty. The analysis of the red damping wing yields a neutral fraction x(HI) < 0.05 (3 sigma). We obtain column density measurements of H, Al, Si, and Fe; for C, O, S and Ni we obtain limits. The ionisation due to the GRB is estimated to be negligible (corrections < 0.03 dex), but larger corrections may apply due to the pre-existing radiation field (up to 0.4 dex based on sub-DLA studies). Assuming that [Si/Fe] = +0.79 +/- 0.13 is due to dust depletion, the dust-to-metal ratio is similar to the Galactic value.Conclusions: Our measurements confirm that the Universe is already predominantly ionised over the redshift range probed in this work, but was slightly more neutral at z > 5.6. GRBs are useful probes of the ionisation state of the IGM in the early Universe, but because of internal scatter we need a larger statistical sample to draw robust conclusions. The high [Si/Fe] in the host can be due to dust depletion, a-element enhancement, or a combination of both. The very high value of [Al/Fe] = 2.40 +/- 0.78 might be due to a proton capture process and is probably connected to the stellar population history. We estimate the host metallicity to be -1.7 < [M/H] < -0.9 (2%-13% of solar).
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| 2. |
- Ranjan, A., et al.
(author)
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Molecular gas and star formation in an absorption-selected galaxy : Hitting the bull's eye at z similar or equal to 2.46
- 2018
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In: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 618
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We present the detection and detailed analysis of a diffuse molecular cloud at z(abs) = 2.4636 towards the quasar SDSS J 1513+0352 (z(em) similar or equal to 2.68) observed with the X-shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. We measured very high column densities of atomic and molecular hydrogen with log N(H-I; H-2) similar or equal to 21.8; 21.3. This is the highest H-2 column density ever measured in an intervening damped Lyman-alpha system but we did not detect CO, implying log N(CO)/N(H-2) < -7.8, which could be due to a low metallicity of the cloud. From the metal absorption lines, we derived the metallicity to be Z similar or equal to 0.15 Z(circle dot) and determined the amount of dust by measuring the induced extinction of the background quasar light, A(V) similar or equal to 0.4. We simultaneously detected Lyman-alpha emission at the same redshift with a centroid located at a most probable impact parameter of only rho similar or equal to 1.4 kpc. We argue that the line of sight is therefore likely passing through the interstellar medium (ISM), as opposed to the circumgalactic medium (CGM), of a galaxy. The relation between the surface density of gas and that of star formation seems to follow the global empirical relation derived in the nearby Universe although our constraints on the star formation rate (SFR) and the galaxy extent remain too loose to be conclusive. We study the transition from atomic to molecular hydrogen using a theoretical description based on the microphysics of molecular hydrogen. We use the derived chemical properties of the cloud and physical conditions (T-k similar or equal to 90K and n similar or equal to 250 cm(3)) derived through the excitation of H-2 rotational levels and neutral carbon fine structure transitions to constrain the fundamental parameters that govern this transition. By comparing the theoretical and observed HI column densities, we are able to bring an independent constraint on the incident ultra-violet (UV) flux, which we find to be in agreement with that estimated from the observed SFR.
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