Exploring damped Lyα system host galaxies using gamma-ray bursts

Journal Article · Thu Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/832/2/175· OSTI ID:22868404

Toy, Vicki L.; Veilleux, Sylvain; Capone, John I. ^[1]; Cucchiara, Antonino; Rafelski, Marc; Cenko, S. Bradley; Pasham, Dheeraj R. ^[2]; Fumagalli, Michele ^[3]; Rahmati, Alireza ^[4]

---

1. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
2. NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. Institute for Computational Cosmology and Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE (United Kingdom)
4. Institute for Computational Science, University of Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich (Switzerland)

We present a sample of 45 Damped Lyα system (DLA; N{sub HI} ⩾ 2×10{sup 20} cm{sup −2}) counterparts (33 detections, 12 upper limits) which host gamma-ray bursts (GRB-DLAs) in order to investigate star formation and metallicity within galaxies hosting DLAs. Our sample spans z∼2--6 and is nearly three times larger than any previously detected DLA counterparts survey based on quasar line-of-sight searches (QSO-DLAs). We report star formation rates (SFRs) from rest-frame UV photometry and spectral energy distribution modeling. We find that DLA counterpart SFRs are not correlated with either redshift or H i column density. Thanks to the combination of Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observations, we also investigate DLA host star formation efficiency. Our GRB-DLA counterpart sample spans both higher efficiency and low efficiency star formation regions compared to the local Kennicutt–Schmidt relation, local star formation laws, and z∼3 cosmological simulations. We also compare the depletion times of our DLA hosts sample to other objects in the local universe; our sample appears to deviate from the star formation efficiencies measured in local spiral and dwarf galaxies. Furthermore, we find similar efficiencies as local inner disks, SMC, and Lyman-break galaxy outskirts. Finally, our enrichment time measurements show a spread of systems with under- and over-abundance of metals, which may suggest that these systems had episodic star formation and a metal enrichment/depletion as a result of strong stellar feedback and/or metal inflow/outflow.

• OSTI ID: 22868404
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 832; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABUNDANCE
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS
DENSITY
DETECTION
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY SPECTRA
FEEDBACK
GALAXIES
METALLICITY
PHOTOMETRY
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
SPACE
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
TELESCOPES
UNIVERSE