Search for high column density systems with gamma ray bursts

¹ SISSA/International School of Advanced Studies, via Beirut 4, 34014 Trieste, Italy
² Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, 464-8602, Japan e-mail: [hirashita;shibai]@u.phys.nagoya-u.ac.jp
³ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, Traverse du Siphon BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France e-mail: tsutomu.takeuchi@oamp.fr

Received: 10 February 2005
Accepted: 28 February 2006

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of searching for metal-poor high column density () clouds at high redshift (z) by using gamma ray burst afterglows. Such clouds could be related to primeval galaxies that may cause a burst of star formation. We show that a large part of hydrogen is in molecular form in such a high column density environment. Therefore, hydrogen molecules (H₂) rather than hydrogen atoms should be searched for. Then we show that infrared H₂ lines are detectable for metal-poor (0.01 solar metallicity) high column density () systems at high-z without suffering dust extinction. The optical properties of dust in infrared could also be constrained by observations of high column density systems. Some possible scenarios for producing high column density systems are finally discussed in the context of galaxy evolution.