Millimetric properties of gamma-ray burst host galaxies
Priddey, R. S., Tanvir, N. R., Levan, A. J., Fruchter, A. S.,
Kouveliotou, C., Smith, I. A., & Wijers, R. A. M. J.
We present millimetre (mm) and submillimetre (submm) photometry of a
sample of five host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), obtained
using the Max Planck Millimetre Bolometer (MAMBO2) array and
Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array (SCUBA).
These observations were obtained as part of an ongoing project to
investigate the status of GRBs as indicators of star formation.
Our targets include two of the most unusual GRB host galaxies,
selected as likely candidate submm galaxies: the extremely red
(R - K ~ 5) host of GRB 030115, and the extremely faint (R > 29.5)
host of GRB 020124.
Neither of these galaxies is detected, but the deep upper limits
for GRB 030115 impose constraints on its spectral energy distribution,
requiring a warmer dust temperature than is commonly adopted for
submillimetre galaxies (SMGs).
As a framework for interpreting these data, and for predicting the
results of forthcoming submm surveys of Swift-derived host samples,
we model the expected flux and redshift distributions based on
luminosity functions of both submm galaxies and GRBs, assuming a
direct proportionality between the GRB rate density and the global
star formation rate density.
We derive the effects of possible sources of uncertainty in these
assumptions, including (1) introducing an anticorrelation between
GRB rate and the global average metallicity, and (2) varying the
dust temperature.
Status: Published 2006, MNRAS, 369, 1189.
Download pdf file.