The GRB Host Galaxies and Redshifts

Abstract

Observations of GRB host galaxies and their environments in general can provide valuable clues about the nature of progenitors. Bursts are associated with faint, <R> ~ 25 mag, galaxies at cosmological redshifts, <z> ~ 1. The host galaxies span a range of luminosities and morphologies, and appear to be broadly typical for the normal, evolving, actively star-forming galaxy populations at comparable redshifts and magnitudes, but may have somewhat elevated SFR per unit luminosity. There are also spectroscopic hints of massive star formation, from the ratios of [Ne III] and [O II] lines. The observed, unobscured star formation rates are typically a few M_sun/yr, but a considerable fraction of the total star formation in the hosts may be obscured by dust. A census of detected optical afterglows provides a powerful new handle on the obscured fraction of star formation in the universe; the current results suggest that at most a half of the massive star formation was hidden by dust.

Invited review, latex, 8 pages with 3 eps figures, style files included. To appear in proc. "Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Era: 2nd Workshop", eds. N. Masetti et al., ESO Astrophysics Symposia, Berlin: Springer Verlag, in press (2001)

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• The GRB 030329 host: a blue low metallicity subluminous galaxy with intense star formation
• Probing the Neutral Fraction of the IGM with GRBs during the Epoch of Reionization
• The First Two Host Galaxies of X-ray Flashes: XRF 011030 and XRF 020427
• Constraints on the Diverse Progenitors of GRBs from the Large-Scale Environments
• Observational Constraints on the Angular and Spectral Distributions of Photons in Gamma-Ray Burst Sources
• The Variability of Gamma-Ray Bursts that Create Afterglows