Near real-time selection of high redshift GRBs with Swift

Abstract

A good fraction of GRBs detected by Swift are at a large redshift (up to z=6.3, so far). Their study allows us to investigate, among other things, the cosmic star formation in the early Universe (possibly up to the re-ionization era) and the chemical enrichment of the high-redshift gas. Here we present and discuss a method of selection which identifies high-redshift candidates based only upon promptly-available information provided by Swift. This method relies upon, Galactic extinction, GRB duration time and absence of an optical counterpart in the UVOT telescope onboard Swift. This tool may provide an extremely effective way to locate high-redshift astrophysical objects and to follow them in the optical/NIR band in near real time.

Submitted to A&A Letters

References in corpus (2)

• The redshift distribution of SWIFT Gamma-Ray Bursts: evidence for evolution
• The redshift distribution of gamma-ray bursts revisited

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Detection of GRB 060927 at z = 5.47: Implications for the Use of Gamma-Ray Bursts as Probes of the End of the Dark Ages
• Testing Reionization with Gamma Ray Burst Absorption Spectra
• Gamma Ray Bursts from the early Universe: predictions for present-day and future instruments
• On the detection of very high redshift Gamma Ray Bursts with Swift
• Hubble Diagram of Gamma-Rays Bursts calibrated with Gurzadyan-Xue Cosmology
• The Luminosity Function of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts and their rate at z>6