Discovery of the optical afterglow and host galaxy of short GRB181123B at $z=1.754$: Implications for Delay Time Distributions

Abstract

We present the discovery of the optical afterglow and host galaxy of the {\it Swift} short-duration gamma-ray burst, GRB\,181123B. Observations with Gemini-North starting at $\approx 9.1$~hr after the burst reveal a faint optical afterglow with $i\approx 25.1$~mag, at an angular offset of 0.59 $\pm$ 0.16${}^{\prime \prime }$ from its host galaxy. Using $grizYJHK$ observations, we measure a photometric redshift of the host galaxy of $z=1.77_{-0.17}^{+0.30}$. From a combination of Gemini and Keck spectroscopy of the host galaxy spanning 4500-18000~Å, we detect a single emission line at 13390~Å, inferred as H$\beta$ at $z=1.754\pm 0.001$ and corroborating the photometric redshift. The host galaxy properties of GRB\,181123B are typical to those of other SGRB hosts, with an inferred stellar mass of $\approx 1.7\times 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$, mass-weighted age of $\approx 0.9$~Gyr and optical luminosity of $\approx 0.9L^{\ast }$. At $z=1.754$, GRB\,181123B is the most distant secure SGRB with an optical afterglow detection, and one of only three at $z>1.5$. Motivated by a growing number of high-$z$ SGRBs, we explore the effects of a missing $z>1.5$ SGRB population among the current {\it Swift} sample on delay time distribution models. We find that log-normal models with mean delay times of $\approx 4-6$~Gyr are consistent with the observed distribution, but can be ruled out to $95\%$ confidence with an additional $\approx 1-5$~{\it Swift} SGRBs recovered at $z>1.5$. In contrast, power-law models with $\propto$ $t^{-1}$ are consistent with the redshift distribution and can accommodate up to $\approx 30$ SGRBs at these redshifts. Under this model, we predict that $\approx 1/3$ of the current {\it Swift} population of SGRBs is at $z>1$. The future discovery or recovery of existing high-$z$ SGRBs will provide significant discriminating power on their delay time distributions, and thus their formation channels.

References in corpus (31)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• The Gaia mission
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• The UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS)
• The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• An Ordinary Short Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Implications: Fermi-GBM Detection of GRB 170817A
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• INTEGRAL Detection of the First Prompt Gamma-Ray Signal Coincident with the Gravitational Wave Event GW170817
• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• Formation of Double Neutron Star Systems
• The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems
• The 1% Concordance Hubble Constant
• The UKIRT Wide Field Camera ZYJHK Photometric System: Calibration from 2MASS
• The rate, luminosity function and time delay of non-Collapsar short GRBs
• Klein-Nishina Effects on Optically Thin Synchrotron and Synchrotron Self-Compton Spectrum
• On the Rate of Neutron Star Binary Mergers from Globular Clusters
• The Host Galaxies of Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts: Luminosities, Metallicities, and Star Formation Rates
• The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/VIRGO GW170817. VIII. A Comparison to Cosmological Short-duration Gamma-ray Bursts
• Accurate early positions for Swift GRBS: enhancing X-ray positions with UVOT astrometry
• Millisecond Pulsars and Black Holes in Globular Clusters
• Natal Kicks and Time Delays in Merging Neutron Star Binaries - Implications for r-process nucleosynthesis in Ultra Faint Dwarfs and in the Milky Way
• A new delay time distribution for merging neutron stars tested against Galactic and cosmic data
• MMT & Magellan Infrared Spectrograph
• The effects of host galaxy properties on merging compact binaries detectable by LIGO
• Constraints on the circumburst environments of short gamma-ray bursts
• Measuring the delay time distribution of binary neutron stars. II. Using the redshift distribution from third-generation gravitational wave detectors network
• Short Gamma Ray Bursts: a bimodal origin?
• Measuring the delay time distribution of binary neutron stars. I. Through Scaling Relations of the Host Galaxies of Gravitational Wave Events
• Measuring the delay time distribution of binary neutron stars. III. Using the individual star formation histories of gravitational wave event host galaxies in the local universe

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Discovery and confirmation of the shortest gamma ray burst from a collapsar
• Short GRB Host Galaxies I: Photometric and Spectroscopic Catalogs, Host Associations, and Galactocentric Offsets
• Short GRB Host Galaxies. II. A Legacy Sample of Redshifts, Stellar Population Properties, and Implications for their Neutron Star Merger Origins
• The Broad-band Counterpart of the Short GRB 200522A at $z=0.5536$: A Luminous Kilonova or a Collimated Outflow with a Reverse Shock?
• A deep survey of short GRB host galaxies over $z\sim 0-2$: implications for offsets, redshifts, and environments
• Evidence from Disrupted Halo Dwarfs that $r$-process Enrichment via Neutron Star Mergers is Delayed by $\gtrsim 500$ Myrs
• Formation and Evolution of Binary Neutron Stars: Mergers and Their Host Galaxies
• Observational Inference on the Delay Time Distribution of Short Gamma-ray Bursts
• Probing Kilonova Ejecta Properties Using a Catalog of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Observations
• Exploring compact binary merger host galaxies and environments with $\mathrm{zELDA}$
• No velocity-kicks are required to explain large-distance offsets of Ca-rich supernovae and short-GRBs
• The distant, galaxy cluster environment of the short GRB 161104A at $z\sim 0.8$ and a comparison to the short GRB host population
• LOFAR early-time search for coherent radio emission from Short GRB 181123B
• Pulsar revival in neutron star mergers: multi-messenger prospects for the discovery of pre-merger coherent radio emission
• Evidence of extended emission in GRB 181123B and other high-redshift short GRBs
• Confronting the Magnetar Interpretation of Fast Radio Bursts Through Their Host Galaxy Demographics
• GRB 180418A: A possibly-short GRB with a wide-angle outflow in a faint host galaxy
• Target of Opportunity Observations Detectability of Kilonovae with WFST
• Rapid-response radio observations of short GRB 181123B with the Australia Telescope Compact Array
• GRB 201104A: A "Repetitive" Short Gamma-Ray Burst?
• Binary neutron star merger offsets from their host galaxies II. Short-duration gamma-ray bursts
• Joint Inference of Population, Cosmology, and Neutron Star Equation of State from Gravitational Waves of Dark Binary Neutron Stars
• Two Sites of r-Process Production Assessed on the Basis of the Age-tagged Abundances of Solar Twins
• GRB 160410A: the first Chemical Study of the Interstellar Medium of a Short GRB