Properties of a Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxy at z ~ 5

Creators: Price, P. A.; Songaila, A.; Cowie, L. L.; Bell Burnell, J.; Berger, E.; Cucchiara, A.; Fox, D. B.; Hook, I.; Kulkarni, S. R.; Penprase, B.; Roth, K. C.; Schmidt, B.

Abstract

We describe the properties of the host galaxy of the gamma-ray burst GRB 060510B based on a spectrum of the burst afterglow obtained with the Gemini North 8 m telescope. The galaxy lies at a redshift of z = 4.941, making it the fourth highest spectroscopically identified burst host. However, it is the second highest redshift galaxy for which the quality of the spectrum permits a detailed metallicity analysis. The neutral hydrogen column density has a logarithmic value of 21.0-21.2 cm^-2, and the weak metal lines of Ni, S, and Fe show that the metallicity is in excess of a tenth of solar, which is far above the metallicities in damped Lyα absorbers at high redshift. The tightest constraint is from the Fe lines, which place [Fe/H] in excess of -0.8. We argue that the results suggest that metallicity bias could be a serious obstacle to inferring star formation from the GRB population, and we consider how future higher quality measurements could be used to resolve this issue.

Additional Information

© 2007. The American Astronomical Society. Received 2007 March 29; accepted 2007 May 22; published 2007 June 18. Print publication: Issue 2 (2007 July 10). These data were obtained at the Gemini Observatory under Program ID GN-2006A-Q-14. We would like to thank Nestor Mirabal for helpful discussions and the Gemini North observing team for carrying out the observations. This work was supported by NSF grants AST04-07374 and AST06-07871, by NASA grants HST-GO-10616.02-A and Swift NN G05 G40G, and by Spitzer contract 1282161.

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