Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2001-12-29
AIP Conf.Proc. 662 (2003) 420-423
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
To appear in proceedings of the "Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HE
Scientific paper
10.1063/1.1579392
The study of gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies in the radio, sub-mm, and X-ray wavelength regimes began only recently, in contrast to optical studies. This is mainly due to the long timescale on which the radio afterglow emission decays, and to the intrinsic faintness of radio emission from star-forming galaxies at z~1, as well as source confusion in sub-mm observations; X-ray observations of GRB hosts have simply not been attempted yet. Despite these difficulties, we have recently made the first detections of radio and sub-mm emission from the host galaxies of GRB980703 and GRB010222, respectively, using the VLA and the SCUBA instrument on JCMT. In both cases we find that the inferred star formation rates (~500 solar masses per year) and bolometric luminosities (~few 10^12 solar luminosities) indicate that these galaxies are possibly analogous to the local population of Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies (ULIRGs) undergoing a starburst. However, there is a modest probability that the observed emission is due to AGN activity rather than star formation, thus requiring observations with Chandra or XMM. The sample of GRB hosts offers a number of unique advantages to the broader question of the evolution of galaxies and star formation from high redshift to the present time since: (i) GRBs trace massive stars, (ii) are detectable to high redshifts, and (iii) have immense dust penetrating power. Therefore, radio/sub-mm/X-ray observations of GRB hosts can potentially provide crucial information both on the nature of the GRB host galaxies, and on the history of star formation.
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