Probing the z>2 Mass-Metallicity Relationship with Gamma-Ray Bursts

Details Probing the z>2 Mass-Metallicity Relationship with Gamma-Ray Bursts Probing the z>2 Mass-Metallicity Relationship with Gamma-Ray Bursts

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011sptz.prop80054b&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #80054

Physics

Scientific paper

The redshift evolution of the relationship between the stellar mass (M) of galaxies and their metallicity (Z) is a fundamental probe of the growth of galaxies, the evolution of the stellar IMF, the chemical evolution of the Universe and the importance of feedback processes in regulating the build up of mass. Although the relationship has been well studied over a range of galaxy masses in the local Universe, and luminous galaxies out to z~2.5, observing the evolution of metallicity at earlier cosmic times has been challenging due to the sensitivity limitations of ground-based spectroscopy. In the past few years, absorption line spectroscopy of long-duration gamma-ray bursts has extremely successful in yielding metallicity estimates of the host galaxy. The association of GRBs with the end stages in the evolution of a massive star implies that the hosts are actively star-forming. Our program to measure stellar masses of gamma-ray burst host galaxies using deep Spitzer imaging combined with observed metallicities yielded the first constraints on the M-Z relationship at z>3 and confirmed that GRBs probe typical, 2. The derived stellar masses, both through direct detections and stacking will be able to extend the M-Z relation down to stellar masses of 2E9 Msun at z>2, assess the differential chemical evolution of galaxies across a wide range of stellar masses and provide a statistically robust sample to test for evolution in the environments that give rise to GRBs, as a function of cosmic time. The proposed observations, in conjunction with our previous program, will also form the Spitzer/GRB Legacy Sample by targeting all GRB hosts with known absorption metallicities during the broad overlap lifetime of NASA's Spitzer and Swift missions.

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