Short GRB Host Galaxies. II. A Legacy Sample of Redshifts, Stellar Population Properties, and Implications for their Neutron Star Merger Origins

Abstract

We present the stellar population properties of 69 short gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies, representing the largest uniformly-modeled sample to-date. Using the Prospector stellar population inference code, we jointly fit photometry and/or spectroscopy of each host galaxy. We find a population median redshift of $z=0.64_{-0.32}^{+0.83}$ ($68\%$ confidence), including 10 new or revised photometric redshifts at $z\gtrsim 1$. We further find a median mass-weighted age of $t_m=0.8_{-0.53}^{+2.71}$Gyr, stellar mass of $\log (M_{\ast }/M_{\odot })=9.69_{-0.65}^{+0.75}$, star formation rate of SFR=$1.44_{-1.35}^{+9.37}{M}_{\odot }$yr${}^{-1}$, stellar metallicity of $\log (Z_{\ast }/Z_{\odot })=-0.38_{-0.42}^{+0.44}$, and dust attenuation of $A_V=0.43_{-0.36}^{+0.85}$~mag (68\% confidence). Overall, the majority of short GRB hosts are star-forming ($\approx 84\%$), with small fractions that are either transitioning ($\approx 6\%$) or quiescent ($\approx 10\%$); however, we observe a much larger fraction ($\approx 40\%$) of quiescent and transitioning hosts at $z\lesssim 0.25$, commensurate with galaxy evolution. We find that short GRB hosts populate the star-forming main sequence of normal field galaxies, but do not include as many high-mass galaxies, implying that their binary neutron star (BNS) merger progenitors are dependent on a combination of host star formation and stellar mass. The distribution of ages and redshifts implies a broad delay-time distribution, with a fast-merging channel at $z>1$ and a decreased BNS formation efficiency at lower redshifts. If short GRB hosts are representative of BNS merger hosts within the horizon of current gravitational wave detectors, these results can inform future searches for electromagnetic counterparts. All of the data and modeling products are available on the BRIGHT website.

arXiv comment32 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, published with ApJ

References in corpus (135)

• GW170817: Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Cosmological Parameter Results
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• Gravitational Waves and Gamma-rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A
• dynesty: A Dynamic Nested Sampling Package for Estimating Bayesian Posteriors and Evidences
• Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA): Convective Boundaries, Element Diffusion, and Massive Star Explosions
• 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
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe
• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling III: model calibration, comparison, and evaluation
• The COSMOS2015 Catalog: Exploring the 1<z<6 Universe with half a million galaxies
• Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• A Comprehensive Study of Binary Compact Objects as Gravitational Wave Sources: Evolutionary Channels, Rates, and Physical Properties
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• 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
• An updated MILES stellar library and stellar population models
• A "kilonova" associated with short-duration gamma-ray burst 130603B
• The 3D-HST Survey: Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/G141 grism spectra, redshifts, and emission line measurements for $\sim 100,000$ galaxies
• The Shape of Spectral Breaks in GRB Afterglows
• 3D-HST: A wide-field grism spectroscopic survey with the Hubble Space Telescope
• Stellar Population Inference with Prospector
• The Observed Offset Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts from Their Host Galaxies: A Robust Clue to the Nature of the Progenitors
• A short gamma-ray burst apparently asssociated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z=0.225
• The Stellar Populations and Evolution of Lyman Break Galaxies
• Rates and properties of type Ia supernovae as a function of mass and star-formation in their host galaxies
• The supernova rate per unit mass
• A Decade of Short-duration Gamma-ray Burst Broad-band Afterglows: Energetics, Circumburst Densities, and Jet Opening Angles
• Deriving Physical Properties from Broadband Photometry with Prospector: Description of the Model and a Demonstration of its Accuracy Using 129 Galaxies in the Local Universe
• The afterglow of GRB050709 and the nature of the short-hard gamma-ray bursts
• An r-Process Kilonova Associated with the Short-Hard GRB 130603B
• Formation Rates of Black Hole Accretion Disk Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Short Gamma-Ray Bursts with Extended Emission
• The 1% Concordance Hubble Constant
• An enigmatic long-lasting gamma-ray burst not accompanied by a bright supernova
• Nebular Continuum and Line Emission in Stellar Population Synthesis Models
• The gamma-ray burst GRB060614 requires a novel explosive process
• The afterglow and elliptical host galaxy of the short gamma-ray burst GRB 050724
• The progenitors of compact-object binaries: impact of metallicity, common envelope and natal kicks
• Photometric Response Functions of the SDSS Imager
• The Third Swift Burst Alert Telescope Gamma-Ray Burst Catalog
• The effect of metallicity on the detection prospects for gravitational waves
• The Locations of Short Gamma-ray Bursts as Evidence for Compact Object Binary Progenitors
• The rate, luminosity function and time delay of non-Collapsar short GRBs
• Closing in on a Short-Hard Burst Progenitor: Constraints from Early-Time Optical Imaging and Spectroscopy of a Possible Host Galaxy of GRB 050509b
• The effect of the metallicity-specific star formation history on double compact object mergers
• The delay-time distribution of type-Ia supernovae from Sloan II
• The optical afterglow of the short gamma-ray burst GRB 050709
• The Afterglow, Energetics and Host Galaxy of the Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Burst 051221a
• How to measure galaxy star-formation histories I: Parametric models
• Delay Time Distribution Measurement of Type Ia Supernovae by the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey and Implications for the Progenitor
• An Older, More Quiescent Universe from Panchromatic SED Fitting of the 3D-HST Survey
• A Population of Massive, Luminous Galaxies Hosting Heavily Dust-Obscured Gamma-Ray Bursts: Implications for the Use of GRBs as Tracers of Cosmic Star Formation
• Host-Galaxy Properties of 32 Low-Redshift Superluminous Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory
• Demographics of the Galaxies Hosting Short-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Double neutron stars: merger rates revisited
• GLADE: A Galaxy Catalogue for Multi-Messenger Searches in the Advanced Gravitational-Wave Detector Era
• Direct measurements of dust attenuation in z~1.5 star-forming galaxies from 3D-HST: Implications for dust geometry and star formation rates
• The Cosmic Evolution of Metallicity from the SDSS Fossil Record
• The Local Rate and the Progenitor Lifetimes of Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts: Synthesis and Predictions for LIGO
• The environment of the binary neutron star merger GW170817
• Type-Ia Supernova Rates to Redshift 2.4 from CLASH: the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• The host galaxies of core-collapse supernovae and gamma ray bursts
• The Offset and Host Light Distributions of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts: A New View from HST Observations of Swift Bursts
• On the Rate of Neutron Star Binary Mergers from Globular Clusters
• The Electromagnetic Counterpart of the Binary Neutron Star Merger LIGO/VIRGO GW170817. VII. Properties of the Host Galaxy and Constraints on the Merger Timescale
• The Host Galaxies of Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts: Luminosities, Metallicities, and Star Formation Rates
• Are LGRBs biased tracers of star formation? Clues from the host galaxies of the Swift/BAT6 complete sample of LGRBs. I: Stellar mass at z<1
• A New Census of the 0.2< z <3.0 Universe, Part II: The Star-Forming Sequence
• The afterglow and kilonova of the short GRB 160821B
• The Stellar Ages and Masses of Short GRB Host Galaxies: Investigating the Progenitor Delay Time Distribution and the Role of Mass and Star Formation in the Short GRB Rate
• The Palomar Transient Factory Core-Collapse Supernova Host-Galaxy Sample. I. Host-Galaxy Distribution Functions and Environment-Dependence of CCSNe
• The Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae Discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory
• Different progenitors of short hard gamma-ray bursts
• The Galaxy Hosts and Large-Scale Environments of Short-Hard Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Short GRB Host Galaxies I: Photometric and Spectroscopic Catalogs, Host Associations, and Galactocentric Offsets
• A List of Galaxies for Gravitational Wave Searches
• Correlations of Prompt and Afterglow Emission in Swift Long and Short Gamma Ray Bursts
• The Luminosity and Redshift Distributions of Short-Duration GRB
• Short Gamma-Ray Bursts and Binary Mergers in Spiral and Elliptical Galaxies: Redshift Distribution and Hosts
• The X-shooter GRB afterglow legacy sample (XS-GRB)
• On the nature of the 'hostless' short GRBs
• Optical emission from GRB 050709: a short/hard GRB in a star forming galaxy
• GRB090426: the farthest short gamma-ray burst?
• How do galaxies acquire their mass?
• The Afterglow and Early-Type Host Galaxy of the Short GRB 150101B at z=0.1343
• The Gravitational waves merger time distribution of binary neutron star systems
• Impact of inter-correlated initial binary parameters on double black hole and neutron star mergers
• The Broad-band Counterpart of the Short GRB 200522A at $z=0.5536$: A Luminous Kilonova or a Collimated Outflow with a Reverse Shock?
• The Evolution of the Fractions of Quiescent and Star-forming Galaxies as a Function of Stellar Mass Since z=3: Increasing Importance of Massive, Dusty Star-forming Galaxies in the Early Universe
• Evidence for Dynamically Driven Formation of the GW170817 Neutron Star Binary in NGC 4993
• A deep survey of short GRB host galaxies over $z\sim 0-2$: implications for offsets, redshifts, and environments
• Deducing the Lifetime of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors from Host Galaxy Demography
• A Search for Neutron Star-Black Hole Binary Mergers in the Short Gamma-Ray Burst Population
• The Old Host-Galaxy Environment of SSS17a, the First Electromagnetic Counterpart to a Gravitational Wave Source
• Connecting GRBs and ULIRGs: A Sensitive, Unbiased Survey for Radio Emission from Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies at 0<z<2.5
• Gemini Spectroscopy of the Short GRB 130603B Afterglow and Host
• Rates and delay times of type Ia supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey
• Formation and Evolution of Binary Neutron Stars: Mergers and Their Host Galaxies
• The effects of host galaxy properties on merging compact binaries detectable by LIGO
• The Afterglow and ULIRG Host Galaxy of the Dark Short GRB 120804A
• Radio Constraints on Heavily-Obscured Star-Formation within Dark Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies
• The Progenitors of Calcium-Strong Transients
• Probing Kilonova Ejecta Properties Using a Catalog of Short Gamma-Ray Burst Observations
• The Luminous Infrared Host Galaxy of Short-Duration GRB 100206A
• The host galaxy of the short GRB111117A at $z=2.211$: impact on the short GRB redshift distribution and progenitor channels
• A Late-time Radio Survey of Short GRBs at $z<0.5$: New Constraints on the Remnants of Neutron Star Mergers
• NGC 4993, the shell galaxy host of GW170817: constraints on the recent galactic merger
• Galaxy Clusters Associated with Short GRBs. I. The Fields of GRBs 050709, 050724, 050911 and 051221a
• Exploring compact binary merger host galaxies and environments with $\mathrm{zELDA}$
• Long GRBs are metallicity-biased tracers of star formation: evidence from host galaxies and redshift distribution
• Discovery of the optical afterglow and host galaxy of short GRB181123B at $z=1.754$: Implications for Delay Time Distributions
• A multi-wavelength analysis of a collection of short-duration GRBs observed between 2012-2015
• The peculiar Ca-rich SN 2019ehk: Evidence for a Type IIb core-collapse supernova from a low mass stripped progenitor
• Deep Hubble Space Telescope Observations of GW170817: Complete Light Curves and the Properties of the Galaxy Merger of NGC 4993
• The distant, galaxy cluster environment of the short GRB 161104A at $z\sim 0.8$ and a comparison to the short GRB host population
• The redshift selected sample of long gamma-ray burst host galaxies: the overall metallicity distribution at $z<0.4$
• Progenitor delay-time distribution of short gamma-ray bursts: Constraints from observations
• Merger delay time distribution of extended emission short GRBs
• Obscured Star Formation in the Host Galaxies of Superluminous Supernovae
• Investigating a population of infrared-bright gamma-ray burst host galaxies
• GRB 180418A: A possibly-short GRB with a wide-angle outflow in a faint host galaxy
• 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
• On the Host Galaxy of GRB 150101B and the Associated Active Galactic Nucleus
• Another short-burst host galaxy with an optically obscured high star formation rate: The case of GRB 071227
• Physical Properties of the Host Galaxies of Ca-rich Transients
• New radio constraints on the obscured star formation rates of massive GRB hosts at redshifts 2-3.5
• Deep ATCA and VLA radio observations of short-GRB host galaxies. Constraints on star-formation rates, afterglow flux, and kilonova radio flares

Cited by in corpus (27)

• A Kilonova Following a Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst at 350 Mpc
• The Science of the Einstein Telescope
• A non-repeating fast radio burst in a dwarf host galaxy
• GRB minimum variability timescale with Insight-HXMT and Swift: implications for progenitor models, dissipation physics and GRB classifications
• The first JWST spectrum of a GRB afterglow: No bright supernova in observations of the brightest GRB of all time, GRB 221009A
• Extragalactic FXT Candidates Discovered by Chandra (2014-2022)
• Deep Synoptic Array science: A massive elliptical host among two galaxy-cluster fast radio bursts
• The short gamma-ray burst population in a quasi-universal jet scenario
• A search for the afterglows, kilonovae, and host galaxies of two short GRBs: GRB 211106A and GRB 211227A
• Eighteen Years of Kilonova Discoveries with Swift
• Inferring host-galaxy properties of LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA's black holes
• Kilonova and Optical Afterglow from Binary Neutron Star Mergers. II. Optimal Search Strategy for Serendipitous Observations and Target-of-opportunity Observations of Gravitational-wave Triggers
• New JWST redshifts for the host galaxies of CDF-S XT1 and XT2: understanding their nature
• Constraining Near-Simultaneous Radio Emission from Short Gamma-ray Bursts using CHIME/FRB
• Investigating time variability of X-ray absorption in Swift GRBs
• Multi-Peaked Non-Thermal Light Curves from Magnetar-Powered Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Disentangling transients and their host galaxies with Scarlet2: A framework to forward model multi-epoch imaging
• Where has all the $r$-process gone? Timescales for GRB-Kilonovae to Enrich their Host Galaxies
• Optical darkness in short-duration $\gamma$-ray bursts
• Unveiling the nature of the Einstein Probe transient EP 241021a
• Binary neutron star merger offsets from their host galaxies II. Short-duration gamma-ray bursts
• Evolutionary tracks of binary neutron star progenitors across cosmic times
• The Spatially Resolved Properties of the GW170817 Host Galaxy
• A long-duration gamma-ray burst of dynamical origin from the nucleus of an ancient galaxy
• Do Short GRBs Exhibit an Anticorrelation between Their Intrinsic Duration and Redshift?
• On the hosts of neutron star mergers in the nearby Universe
• The impact of kilonova seed photons on GRB VHE emission