Long gamma-ray bursts imply a higher cosmic star formation rate density at z>6 than galaxy surveys detect, sufficient to drive reionization with moderate ionizing efficiency and escape fraction, implying a large population of undetected faint galaxies.
The optically unbiased GRB host (TOUGH) survey. I. Survey design and catalogs
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abstract
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful tracers of star-forming galaxies. We have defined a homogeneous subsample of 69 Swift GRB-selected galaxies spanning a very wide redshift range. Special attention has been devoted to making the sample optically unbiased through simple and well-defined selection criteria based on the high-energy properties of the bursts and their positions on the sky. Thanks to our extensive follow-up observations, this sample has now achieved a comparatively high degree of redshift completeness, and thus provides a legacy sample, useful for statistical studies of GRBs and their host galaxies. In this paper we present the survey design and summarize the results of our observing program conducted at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) aimed at obtaining the most basic properties of galaxies in this sample, including a catalog of R and Ks magnitudes and redshifts. We detect the host galaxies for 80 % of the GRBs in the sample, although only 42 % have Ks-band detections, which confirms that GRB-selected host galaxies are generally blue. The sample is not uniformly blue, however, with two extremely red objects detected. Moreover, galaxies hosting GRBs with no optical/NIR afterglows, whose identification therefore relies on X-ray localizations, are significantly brighter and redder than those with an optical/NIR afterglow. Our spectroscopic campaign has resulted in 77 % now having redshift measurements, with a median redshift of 2.14 +- 0.18. TOUGH alone includes 17 detected z > 2 Swift GRB host galaxies suitable for individual and statistical studies. Seven hosts have detections of the Ly-alpha emission line and we can exclude an early indication that Ly-alpha emission is ubiquitous among GRB hosts, but confirm that Ly-alpha is stronger in GRB-selected galaxies than in flux-limited samples of Lyman break galaxies.
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Optical imaging and BAGPIPES SED fitting of eight FXTs yields candidate hosts consistent with WD-IMBH TDEs or BNS mergers for most events, with one reclassified as a Galactic flare and evidence for diverse origins.
A review of interstellar dust production, destruction, accretion, and depletion that concludes dust growth in cold clouds is critical and high-redshift dust budgets remain poorly constrained.
citing papers explorer
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Gamma-ray bursts reveal the history and faint contributors of cosmic reionization
Long gamma-ray bursts imply a higher cosmic star formation rate density at z>6 than galaxy surveys detect, sufficient to drive reionization with moderate ionizing efficiency and escape fraction, implying a large population of undetected faint galaxies.
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Optical observations of candidate host galaxies of eight fast X-ray transients
Optical imaging and BAGPIPES SED fitting of eight FXTs yields candidate hosts consistent with WD-IMBH TDEs or BNS mergers for most events, with one reclassified as a Galactic flare and evidence for diverse origins.
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Interstellar dust production, destruction and effects of dust depletion in galaxies
A review of interstellar dust production, destruction, accretion, and depletion that concludes dust growth in cold clouds is critical and high-redshift dust budgets remain poorly constrained.