期刊
ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS
卷 580, 期 -, 页码 -出版社
EDP SCIENCES S A
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201425001
关键词
gamma-ray burst: individual: GRB 130606A; cosmology: observations; dark ages, reionization, first stars; ISM: abundances
资金
- Dutch Research School for Astronomy (NOVA)
- Instrument center for Danish Astrophysics (IDA)
- European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Program (FP7)/ERC [EGGS-278202]
- European Commission under the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship Programme in FP7
- Spanish project [AYA2012-39362-C02-02]
- European Commission under the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant programme [FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG 322307]
- DNRF
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L000733/1, ST/K001000/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- STFC [ST/K001000/1, ST/L000733/1, ST/H001972/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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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