Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy

K. E. Heintz; C. Ledoux; J. P.U. Fynbo; P. Jakobsson; P. Noterdaeme; J. K. Krogager; J. Bolmer; P. Møller; S. D. Vergani; D. Watson; T. Zafar; A. De Cia; N. R. Tanvir; D. B. Malesani; J. Japelj; S. Covino; L. Kaper

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy

K. E. Heintz, C. Ledoux, J. P.U. Fynbo, P. Jakobsson, P. Noterdaeme, J. K. Krogager, J. Bolmer, P. Møller, S. D. Vergani, D. Watson, T. Zafar, A. De Cia, N. R. Tanvir, D. B. Malesani, J. Japelj, S. Covino, L. Kaper

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Abstract

We present a survey for neutral atomic-carbon (Câ€» I) along gamma-ray burst (GRB) sightlines, which probes the shielded neutral gas-phase in the interstellar medium (ISM) of GRB host galaxies at high redshift. We compile a sample of 29 medium-to high-resolution GRB optical afterglow spectra spanning a redshift range through most of cosmic time from 1 < z < 6. We find that seven (25%) of the GRBs entering our statistical sample have C » I detected in absorption. It is evident that there is a strong excess of cold gas in GRB hosts compared to absorbers in quasar sightlines. We investigate the dust properties of the GRB C » I absorbers and find that the amount of neutral carbon is positively correlated with the visual extinction, A _V , and the strength of the 2175 Å dust extinction feature, A _bump . GRBs with C » I detected in absorption are all observed above a certain threshold of logN(H » I)/cm ^-2 + [X/H] > 20.7 and a dust-phase iron column density of logN(Fe) _dust /cm ^-2 > 16.2. In contrast to the SED-derived dust properties, the strength of the C » I absorption does not correlate with the depletion-derived dust properties. This indicates that the GRB C » I absorbers trace dusty systems where the dust composition is dominated by carbon-rich dust grains. The observed higher metal and dust column densities of the GRB C » I absorbers compared to H ₂ -and C » I-bearing quasar absorbers is mainly a consequence of how the two absorber populations are selected, but is also required in the presence of intense UV radiation fields in actively star-forming galaxies.

Original language	English
Article number	A20
Journal	Astronomy and Astrophysics
Volume	621
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834246
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the referee for a clear, constructive and concise report that greatly improved the presentation of the results from this work. We also wish to thank the large European GRB collaboration and the dedicated ToO advocates staying on alert at all times, day and night. Without the swift reaction of this team, such a large number of good quality GRB afterglow spectra would never have been gathered. KEH and PJ acknowledge support by a Project Grant (162948–051) from The Icelandic Research Fund. The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the DNRF. JK and PN acknowledge funding from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant no ANR-17-CE31-0011-01. SDV acknowledges the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR) under contract ANR-16-CE31-0003. JJ acknowledges support from NOVA and NWO-FAPESP grant for advanced instrumentation in astronomy.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 ESO.

Other keywords

Dust, extinction
Galaxies: high-redshift
Galaxies: ISM
Gamma-ray burst: general

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10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

Cite this

Heintz, K. E., Ledoux, C., Fynbo, J. P. U., Jakobsson, P., Noterdaeme, P., Krogager, J. K., Bolmer, J., Møller, P., Vergani, S. D., Watson, D., Zafar, T., De Cia, A., Tanvir, N. R., Malesani, D. B., Japelj, J., Covino, S., & Kaper, L. (2019). Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 621, Article A20. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

@article{29dd533bd8c04a7196c3b6ccb5981ffc,

title = "Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy",

abstract = " We present a survey for neutral atomic-carbon (C{\^a}€» I) along gamma-ray burst (GRB) sightlines, which probes the shielded neutral gas-phase in the interstellar medium (ISM) of GRB host galaxies at high redshift. We compile a sample of 29 medium-to high-resolution GRB optical afterglow spectra spanning a redshift range through most of cosmic time from 1 < z < 6. We find that seven (25%) of the GRBs entering our statistical sample have C » I detected in absorption. It is evident that there is a strong excess of cold gas in GRB hosts compared to absorbers in quasar sightlines. We investigate the dust properties of the GRB C » I absorbers and find that the amount of neutral carbon is positively correlated with the visual extinction, A V , and the strength of the 2175 {\AA} dust extinction feature, A bump . GRBs with C » I detected in absorption are all observed above a certain threshold of logN(H » I)/cm -2 + [X/H] > 20.7 and a dust-phase iron column density of logN(Fe) dust /cm -2 > 16.2. In contrast to the SED-derived dust properties, the strength of the C » I absorption does not correlate with the depletion-derived dust properties. This indicates that the GRB C » I absorbers trace dusty systems where the dust composition is dominated by carbon-rich dust grains. The observed higher metal and dust column densities of the GRB C » I absorbers compared to H 2 -and C » I-bearing quasar absorbers is mainly a consequence of how the two absorber populations are selected, but is also required in the presence of intense UV radiation fields in actively star-forming galaxies. ",

keywords = "Dust, extinction, Galaxies: high-redshift, Galaxies: ISM, Gamma-ray burst: general",

author = "Heintz, {K. E.} and C. Ledoux and Fynbo, {J. P.U.} and P. Jakobsson and P. Noterdaeme and Krogager, {J. K.} and J. Bolmer and P. M{\o}ller and Vergani, {S. D.} and D. Watson and T. Zafar and {De Cia}, A. and Tanvir, {N. R.} and Malesani, {D. B.} and J. Japelj and S. Covino and L. Kaper",

note = "Funding Information: Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the referee for a clear, constructive and concise report that greatly improved the presentation of the results from this work. We also wish to thank the large European GRB collaboration and the dedicated ToO advocates staying on alert at all times, day and night. Without the swift reaction of this team, such a large number of good quality GRB afterglow spectra would never have been gathered. KEH and PJ acknowledge support by a Project Grant (162948–051) from The Icelandic Research Fund. The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the DNRF. JK and PN acknowledge funding from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant no ANR-17-CE31-0011-01. SDV acknowledges the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR) under contract ANR-16-CE31-0003. JJ acknowledges support from NOVA and NWO-FAPESP grant for advanced instrumentation in astronomy. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018 ESO.",

year = "2019",

month = jan,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1051/0004-6361/201834246",

language = "English",

volume = "621",

journal = "Astronomy and Astrophysics",

issn = "0004-6361",

publisher = "EDP Sciences",

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Heintz, KE, Ledoux, C, Fynbo, JPU, Jakobsson, P, Noterdaeme, P, Krogager, JK, Bolmer, J, Møller, P, Vergani, SD, Watson, D, Zafar, T, De Cia, A, Tanvir, NR, Malesani, DB, Japelj, J, Covino, S & Kaper, L 2019, 'Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 621, A20. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cold gas in the early Universe

T2 - Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy

AU - Heintz, K. E.

AU - Ledoux, C.

AU - Fynbo, J. P.U.

AU - Jakobsson, P.

AU - Noterdaeme, P.

AU - Krogager, J. K.

AU - Bolmer, J.

AU - Møller, P.

AU - Vergani, S. D.

AU - Watson, D.

AU - Zafar, T.

AU - De Cia, A.

AU - Tanvir, N. R.

AU - Malesani, D. B.

AU - Japelj, J.

AU - Covino, S.

AU - Kaper, L.

N1 - Funding Information: Acknowledgements. We would like to thank the referee for a clear, constructive and concise report that greatly improved the presentation of the results from this work. We also wish to thank the large European GRB collaboration and the dedicated ToO advocates staying on alert at all times, day and night. Without the swift reaction of this team, such a large number of good quality GRB afterglow spectra would never have been gathered. KEH and PJ acknowledge support by a Project Grant (162948–051) from The Icelandic Research Fund. The Cosmic Dawn Center is funded by the DNRF. JK and PN acknowledge funding from the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche under grant no ANR-17-CE31-0011-01. SDV acknowledges the support of the French National Research Agency (ANR) under contract ANR-16-CE31-0003. JJ acknowledges support from NOVA and NWO-FAPESP grant for advanced instrumentation in astronomy. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 ESO.

PY - 2019/1/1

Y1 - 2019/1/1

N2 - We present a survey for neutral atomic-carbon (Câ€» I) along gamma-ray burst (GRB) sightlines, which probes the shielded neutral gas-phase in the interstellar medium (ISM) of GRB host galaxies at high redshift. We compile a sample of 29 medium-to high-resolution GRB optical afterglow spectra spanning a redshift range through most of cosmic time from 1 < z < 6. We find that seven (25%) of the GRBs entering our statistical sample have C » I detected in absorption. It is evident that there is a strong excess of cold gas in GRB hosts compared to absorbers in quasar sightlines. We investigate the dust properties of the GRB C » I absorbers and find that the amount of neutral carbon is positively correlated with the visual extinction, A V , and the strength of the 2175 Å dust extinction feature, A bump . GRBs with C » I detected in absorption are all observed above a certain threshold of logN(H » I)/cm -2 + [X/H] > 20.7 and a dust-phase iron column density of logN(Fe) dust /cm -2 > 16.2. In contrast to the SED-derived dust properties, the strength of the C » I absorption does not correlate with the depletion-derived dust properties. This indicates that the GRB C » I absorbers trace dusty systems where the dust composition is dominated by carbon-rich dust grains. The observed higher metal and dust column densities of the GRB C » I absorbers compared to H 2 -and C » I-bearing quasar absorbers is mainly a consequence of how the two absorber populations are selected, but is also required in the presence of intense UV radiation fields in actively star-forming galaxies.

AB - We present a survey for neutral atomic-carbon (Câ€» I) along gamma-ray burst (GRB) sightlines, which probes the shielded neutral gas-phase in the interstellar medium (ISM) of GRB host galaxies at high redshift. We compile a sample of 29 medium-to high-resolution GRB optical afterglow spectra spanning a redshift range through most of cosmic time from 1 < z < 6. We find that seven (25%) of the GRBs entering our statistical sample have C » I detected in absorption. It is evident that there is a strong excess of cold gas in GRB hosts compared to absorbers in quasar sightlines. We investigate the dust properties of the GRB C » I absorbers and find that the amount of neutral carbon is positively correlated with the visual extinction, A V , and the strength of the 2175 Å dust extinction feature, A bump . GRBs with C » I detected in absorption are all observed above a certain threshold of logN(H » I)/cm -2 + [X/H] > 20.7 and a dust-phase iron column density of logN(Fe) dust /cm -2 > 16.2. In contrast to the SED-derived dust properties, the strength of the C » I absorption does not correlate with the depletion-derived dust properties. This indicates that the GRB C » I absorbers trace dusty systems where the dust composition is dominated by carbon-rich dust grains. The observed higher metal and dust column densities of the GRB C » I absorbers compared to H 2 -and C » I-bearing quasar absorbers is mainly a consequence of how the two absorber populations are selected, but is also required in the presence of intense UV radiation fields in actively star-forming galaxies.

KW - Dust, extinction

KW - Galaxies: high-redshift

KW - Galaxies: ISM

KW - Gamma-ray burst: general

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U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201834246

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85059480891

SN - 0004-6361

VL - 621

JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics

JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics

M1 - A20

ER -

Cold gas in the early Universe: Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z < 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Other keywords

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Cite this