Gamma Ray Bursts from the early Universe: predictions for present-day and future instruments

Abstract

Long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) constitute an important tool to study the Universe near and beyond the epoch of reionization. We delineate here the characteristics of an 'ideal' instrument for the search of GRBs at z>6-10. We find that the detection of these objects requires soft band detectors with a high sensitivity and moderately large FOV. In the light of these results, we compare available and planned GRB missions, deriving conservative predictions on the number of high-z GRBs detectable by these instruments along with the maximum accessible redshift. We show that the Swift satellite will be able to detect various GRBs at z>6, and likely at z>10 if the trigger threshold is decreased by a factor of ~2. Furthermore, we find that INTEGRAL and GLAST are not the best tool to detect bursts at z>6: the former being limited by the small FOV, and the latter by its hard energy band and relatively low sensitivity. Finally, future missions (SVOM, EDGE, but in particular EXIST) will provide a good sample of GRBs at z>6 in a few years of operation.

arXiv comment6 pages, 2 figures, MNRAS in press

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• Sciences with the 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST)
• Science objectives of the Einstein Probe mission
• Evidence for Luminosity Evolution of Long Gamma-ray Bursts in Swift Data
• Constraints on Warm Dark Matter models from high-redshift long gamma-ray bursts
• Probing cosmic star formation up to z = 9.4 with GRBs
• Accessing the population of high redshift Gamma Ray Bursts
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• Testing Reionization with Gamma Ray Burst Absorption Spectra
• Selection Effects on the Observed Redshift Dependence of GRB Jet Opening Angles
• Formation, disruption and energy output of Population III X-ray binaries
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• Gamma Ray Bursts as Probes of the Distant Universe
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• The Science Case for PILOT II: the Distant Universe
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• The Luminosity Function of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts and their rate at z>6
• The LOFT Burst Alert System and its Burst On-board Trigger