On the distribution of stellar masses in gamma-ray burst host galaxies

Details On the distribution of stellar masses in gamma-ray burst host galaxies On the distribution of stellar masses in gamma-ray burst host galaxies

2008-03-17

arxiv.org/abs/0803.2235v3

Astrophys.J.721:1919-1927,2010

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

10 pages by emulateApJ, 1 table and 5 figures (3 in colour); published in ApJ, main journal; version 3: new figure with postag

Scientific paper

10.1088/0004-637X/721/2/1919

We analyse Spitzer images of 30 long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies. We estimate their total stellar masses (M*) based on the rest-frame K-band luminosities (L_Krest) and constrain their star formation rates (SFRs, not corrected for dust extinction) based on the rest-frame UV continua. Further, we compute a mean M*/L_Krest = 0.45 Msun/Lsun. We find that the hosts are low M*, star-forming systems. The median M* in our sample ( = 10^9.7 Msun) is lower than that of "field" galaxies (e.g., Gemini Deep Deep Survey). The range spanned by M* is 10^7 Msun < M* < 10^11 Msun, while the range spanned by the dust-uncorrected UV SFR is 10^-2 Msun yr^-1 < SFR < 10 Msun yr^-1. There is no evidence for intrinsic evolution in the distribution of M* with redshift. We show that extinction by dust must be present in at least 25% of the GRB hosts in our sample and suggest that this is a way to reconcile our finding of a relatively lower UV-based, specific SFR (PHI = SFR/M*) with previous claims that GRBs have some of the highest PHI values. We also examine the effect that the inability to resolve the star-forming regions in the hosts has on PHI.

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