Gamma Ray Burst Spectroscopy!

Collaborators: Caltech/Carnegie/Gemini GRB group including Edo Berger, Derek Fox, Antonino Cucchiari, Shri Kulkarni, Alicia Soderberg, Brad Cenko, Dale Frail, Paul Price, Brian Schmidt, Ehud Nakar, Eran Ofek, and many others.. Pomona College Students: Seth Kadish, Laura Kerber, Max Wainwright Gamma Ray Burst Afterglow Spectroscopy

Cosmic Cannon: How an Exploding Star Could Fry Earth By Robert Roy Britt/Space.com (images from E. Berger, Harvard)

Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, 1963 … to prohibit, to prevent, and not to carry out any nuclear weapon test explosion: (a) in the atmosphere; beyond its limits, including outer space; or under water …

The Vela Satellites ( )

The First Gamma-Ray Burst

The Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory

The “Great Debate” (1995) “The Distance Scale to Gamma-Ray Bursts” Bohdan PaczynskiDon Lamb GalacticCosmological The Shapley–Curtis Great Debate (1920) on the “Scale of the Universe” (From E. Berger)

Present Day - GRB Afterglow Spectroscopy!

Example GRB spectrum -- GRB spectrum at z=4.27 Berger, Penprase et al, ApJ 634, 501. Text GRB and resulting winds of CIV lines, log(N(HI)) > 22.0, and density from SiII*

log(N(HI)) and Metallicity of GRBs vs DLAs Savaglio and Fall (circles) GRB (cross) from Berger, Penprase et al 2005

Keck HIRES GRB spectrum! -- GRB host galaxy lines at z=1.549 Penprase, Berger, et al, 2006, Ap. J. 642, 979.

Keck Observation of Host Galaxy of GRB (1500 seconds!) Two foreground galaxies at much lower redshifts (z=1.18, z=0.82); Host galaxy at redshift of z=1.549; R = 26 based on Keck imaging Note lack of information from imaging studies - host galaxy is impossibly faint!

Excited fine structure lines of Fe II (radiative pumping; see Prochaska, et al 2007)

Tour of GRB spectrum (continued)

MgII, MgI, and MnII from GRB Penprase, Berger, et al, 2006, Ap. J. 642, 979. Absorption from GRB host galaxy from HIRES

AlIII, CrII, ZnII from GRB Penprase, Berger, et al, 2006, Ap. J. 642, 979.

Comparison of GRB (dark square) and other GRB s (dark circles) absorption line abundance ratios and column densities with DLA sample

Abundances of elements within GRB , compared to solar abundances, and with models of dust depletion from various interstellar environments. Detection of Interstellar Elements in distant GRB host galaxy

GRB at z = 8.2 !!!! Tanvir et al, 2009, Nature, 461, Tanvir, N. R.; Fox, D. B.; Levan, A. J.; Berger, E.; Wiersema, K.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Cucchiara, A.; Krühler, T.; Gehrels, N.; Bloom, J. S.; Greiner, J.; Evans, P. A.; Rol, E.; Olivares, F.; Hjorth, J.; Jakobsson, P.; Farihi, J.; Willingale, R.; Starling, R. L. C.; Cenko, S. B.; Perley, D.; Maund, J. R.; Duke, J.; Wijers, R. A. M. J.; Adamson, A. J.; Allan, A.; Bremer, M. N.; Burrows, D. N.; Castro- Tirado, A. J.; Cavanagh, B.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Dopita, M. A.; Fatkhullin, T. A.; Fruchter, A. S.; Foley, R. J.; Gorosabel, J.; Kennea, J.; Kerr, T.; Klose, S.; Krimm, H. A.; Komarova, V. N.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Moskvitin, A. S.; Mundell, C. G.; Naylor, T.; Page, K.; Penprase, B. E.; Perri, M.; Podsiadlowski, P.; Roth, K.; Rutledge, R. E.; Sakamoto, T.; Schady, P.; Schmidt, B. P.; Soderberg, A. M.; Sollerman, J.; Stephens, A. W.; Stratta, G.; Ukwatta, T. N.; Watson, D.; Westra, E.; Wold, T.; Wolf, C., 2009, “A γ -ray burst at a redshift of z~8.2”, 2009, Nature, 461, Issue 7268, pp (2009). The future: Toward Higher Redshift!

Histogram of most distant known objects in the Universe