Issue |
A&A
Volume 621, January 2019
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A20 | |
Number of page(s) | 13 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201834246 | |
Published online | 20 December 2018 |
Cold gas in the early Universe
Survey for neutral atomic-carbon in GRB host galaxies at 1 < z< 6 from optical afterglow spectroscopy
1 Centre for Astrophysics and Cosmology, Science Institute, University of Iceland, Dunhagi 5, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland
e-mail: keh14@hi.is
2 Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
3 DTU-Space, Technical University of Denmark, Elektrovej 327, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
4 European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla, 19001 Santiago 19, Chile
5 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS-UPMC, UMR7095, 98bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
6 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschildstrasse 2, 85748 Garching bei München, Germany
7 GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France
8 Australian Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 915, North Ryde, NSW, 1670
Australia
9 Department of Physics & Astronomy and Leicester Institute of Space & Earth Observation, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH
UK
10 Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 CopenhagenØ, Denmark
11 Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
12 INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Via E. Bianchi 46, 23807 Merate, LC, Italy
Received:
14
September
2018
Accepted:
24
October
2018
We present a survey for neutral atomic-carbon (C 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, AV, and the strength of the 2175 Å dust extinction feature, Abump. 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 H2- 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.
Key words: gamma-ray burst: general / galaxies: ISM / galaxies: high-redshift / dust, extinction
© ESO 2018
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