Browsing by Author "Heintz, K. E."

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    Mass and metallicity scaling relations of high-redshift star-forming galaxies selected by GRBs
    (2018) Arabsalmani, M.; Moller, P.; Perley, D. A.; Freudling, W.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Le Floc'h, E.; Zwaan, M. A.; Schulze, S.; Tanvir, N. R.; Christensen, L.; Levan, A. J.; Jakobsson, P.; Malesani, D.; Cano, Z.; Covino, S.; D'Elia, V.; Goldoni, P.; Gomboc, A.; Heintz, K. E.; Sparre, M.; Postigo, A. de Ugarte; Vergani, S. D.
    We present a comprehensive study of the relations between gas kinematics, metallicity and stellar mass in a sample of 82 gamma-ray burst (GRB)-selected galaxies using absorption and emission methods. We find the velocity widths of both emission and absorption profiles to be a proxy of stellar mass. We also investigate the velocity-metallicity correlation and its evolution with redshift. Using 33 GRB hosts with measured stellar mass and metallicity, we study the mass-metallicity relation for GRB host galaxies in a stellarmass range of 10(8.2)-10(11.1) M-circle dot and a redshift range of z similar to 0.3-3.4. TheGRB-selected galaxies appear to track themass-metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies but with an offset of 0.15 towards lower metallicities. This offset is comparable with the average error bar on the metallicity measurements of the GRB sample and also the scatter on the mass-metallicity relation of the general population. It is hard to decide whether this relatively small offset is due to systematic effects or the intrinsic nature of GRB hosts. We also investigate the possibility of using absorption-line metallicity measurements of GRB hosts to study the mass-metallicity relation at high redshifts. Our analysis shows that the metallicity measurements from absorption methods can significantly differ from emission metallicities and assuming identical measurements from the two methods may result in erroneous conclusions.
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    Observational constraints on the optical and near-infrared emission from the neutron star-black hole binary merger candidate S190814bv
    (2020) Ackley, K.; Amati, L.; Barbieri, C.; Bauer, F. E.; Benetti, S.; Bernardini, M. G.; Bhirombhakdi, K.; Botticella, M. T.; Branchesi, M.; Brocato, E.; Bruun, S. H.; Bulla, M.; Campana, S.; Cappellaro, E.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Chambers, K. C.; Chaty, S.; Chen, T-W; Ciolfi, R.; Coleiro, A.; Copperwheat, C. M.; Covino, S.; Cutter, R.; D'Ammando, F.; D'Avanzo, P.; De Cesare, G.; D'Elia, V; Della Valle, M.; Denneau, L.; De Pasquale, M.; Dhillon, V. S.; Dyer, M. J.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Evans, P. A.; Eyles-Ferris, R. A. J.; Fiore, A.; Fraser, M.; Fruchter, A. S.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Galbany, L.; Gall, C.; Galloway, D. K.; Getman, F., I; Ghirlanda, G.; Gillanders, J. H.; Gomboc, A.; Gompertz, B. P.; Gonzalez-Fernandez, C.; Gonzalez-Gaitan, S.; Grado, A.; Greco, G.; Gromadzki, M.; Groot, P. J.; Gutierrez, C. P.; Heikkila, T.; Heintz, K. E.; Hjorth, J.; Hu, Y-D; Huber, M. E.; Inserra, C.; Izzo, L.; Japelj, J.; Jerkstrand, A.; Jin, Z. P.; Jonker, P. G.; Kankare, E.; Kann, D. A.; Kennedy, M.; Kim, S.; Klose, S.; Kool, E. C.; Kotak, R.; Kuncarayakti, H.; Lamb, G. P.; Leloudas, G.; Levan, A. J.; Longo, F.; Lowe, T. B.; Lyman, J. D.; Magnier, E.; Maguire, K.; Maiorano, E.; Mandel, I; Mapelli, M.; Mattila, S.; McBrien, O. R.; Melandri, A.; Michalowski, M. J.; Milvang-Jensen, B.; Moran, S.; Nicastro, L.; Nicholl, M.; Guelbenzu, A. Nicuesa; Nuttal, L.; Oates, S. R.; O'Brien, P. T.; Onori, F.; Palazzi, E.; Patricelli, B.; Perego, A.; Torres, M. A. P.; Perley, D. A.; Pian, E.; Pignata, G.; Piranomonte, S.; Poshyachinda, S.; Possenti, A.; Pumo, M. L.; Quirola-Vasquez, J.; Ragosta, F.; Ramsay, G.; Rau, A.; Rest, A.; Reynolds, T. M.; Rosetti, S. S.; Rossi, A.; Rosswog, S.; Sabha, N. B.; Carracedo, A. Sagues; Salafia, O. S.; Salmon, L.; Salvaterra, R.; Savaglio, S.; Sbordone, L.; Schady, P.; Schipani, P.; Schultz, A. S. B.; Schweyer, T.; Smartt, S. J.; Smith, K. W.; Smith, M.; Sollerman, J.; Srivastav, S.; Stanway, E. R.; Starling, R. L. C.; Steeghs, D.; Stratta, G.; Stubbs, C. W.; Tanvir, N. R.; Testa, V; Thrane, E.; Tonry, J. L.; Turatto, M.; Ulaczyk, K.; van der Horst, A. J.; Vergani, S. D.; Walton, N. A.; Watson, D.; Wiersema, K.; Wiik, K.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Yang, S.; Yi, S-X; Young, D. R.
    Context. Gravitational wave (GW) astronomy has rapidly reached maturity, becoming a fundamental observing window for modern astrophysics. The coalescences of a few tens of black hole (BH) binaries have been detected, while the number of events possibly including a neutron star (NS) is still limited to a few. On 2019 August 14, the LIGO and Virgo interferometers detected a high-significance event labelled S190814bv. A preliminary analysis of the GW data suggests that the event was likely due to the merger of a compact binary system formed by a BH and a NS.Aims. In this paper, we present our extensive search campaign aimed at uncovering the potential optical and near infrared electromagnetic counterpart of S190814bv. We found no convincing electromagnetic counterpart in our data. We therefore use our non-detection to place limits on the properties of the putative outflows that could have been produced by the binary during and after the merger.Methods. Thanks to the three-detector observation of S190814bv, and given the characteristics of the signal, the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations delivered a relatively narrow localisation in low latency - a 50% (90%) credible area of 5 deg(2) (23 deg(2)) - despite the relatively large distance of 26752 Mpc. ElectromagNetic counterparts of GRAvitational wave sources at the VEry Large Telescope collaboration members carried out an intensive multi-epoch, multi-instrument observational campaign to identify the possible optical and near infrared counterpart of the event. In addition, the ATLAS, GOTO, GRAWITA-VST, Pan-STARRS, and VINROUGE projects also carried out a search on this event. In this paper, we describe the combined observational campaign of these groups.Results. Our observations allow us to place limits on the presence of any counterpart and discuss the implications for the kilonova (KN), which was possibly generated by this NS-BH merger, and for the strategy of future searches. The typical depth of our wide-field observations, which cover most of the projected sky localisation probability (up to 99.8%, depending on the night and filter considered), is r similar to 22 (resp. K similar to 21) in the optical (resp. near infrared). We reach deeper limits in a subset of our galaxy-targeted observations, which cover a total similar to 50% of the galaxy-mass-weighted localisation probability. Altogether, our observations allow us to exclude a KN with large ejecta mass M greater than or similar to 0.1 M-circle dot to a high (> 90%) confidence, and we can exclude much smaller masses in a sub-sample of our observations. This disfavours the tidal disruption of the neutron star during the merger.Conclusions. Despite the sensitive instruments involved in the campaign, given the distance of S190814bv, we could not reach sufficiently deep limits to constrain a KN comparable in luminosity to AT 2017gfo on a large fraction of the localisation probability. This suggests that future (likely common) events at a few hundred megaparsecs will be detected only by large facilities with both a high sensitivity and large field of view. Galaxy-targeted observations can reach the needed depth over a relevant portion of the localisation probability with a smaller investment of resources, but the number of galaxies to be targeted in order to get a fairly complete coverage is large, even in the case of a localisation as good as that of this event.
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    Panning for gold, but finding helium: Discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN 2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
    (2023) Agudo, I.; Amati, L.; An, T.; Bauer, F. E.; Benetti, S.; Bernardini, M. G.; Beswick, R.; Bhirombhakdi, K.; de Boer, T.; Branchesi, M.; Brennan, S. J.; Brocato, E.; Caballero-Garcia, M. D.; Cappellaro, E.; Castro Rodriguez, N.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Chambers, K. C.; Chassande-Mottin, E.; Chaty, S.; Chen, T. -W.; Coleiro, A.; Covino, S.; D'Ammando, F.; D'Avanzo, P.; D'Elia, V.; Fiore, A.; Floers, A.; Fraser, M.; Frey, S.; Frohmaier, C.; Fulton, M.; Galbany, L.; Gall, C.; Gao, H.; Garcia-Rojas, J.; Ghirlanda, G.; Giarratana, S.; Gillanders, J. H.; Giroletti, M.; Gompertz, B. P.; Gromadzki, M.; Heintz, K. E.; Hjorth, J.; Hu, Y. -D.; Huber, M. E.; Inkenhaag, A.; Izzo, L.; Jin, Z. P.; Jonker, P. G.; Kann, D. A.; Kool, E. C.; Kotak, R.; Leloudas, G.; Levan, A. J.; Lin, C. -C.; Lyman, J. D.; Magnier, E. A.; Maguire, K.; Mandel, I.; Marcote, B.; Sanchez, D. Mata; Mattila, S.; Melandri, A.; Michalowski, M. J.; Moldon, J.; Nicholl, M.; Guelbenzu, A. Nicuesa; Oates, S. R.; Onori, F.; Orienti, M.; Paladino, R.; Paragi, Z.; Perez-Torres, M.; Pian, E.; Pignata, G.; Piranomonte, S.; Quirola-Vasquez, J.; Ragosta, F.; Rau, A.; Ronchini, S.; Rossi, A.; Sanchez-Ramirez, R.; Salafia, O. S.; Schulze, S.; Smartt, S. J.; Smith, K. W.; Sollerman, J.; Srivastav, S.; Starling, R. L. C.; Steeghs, D.; Stevance, H. F.; Tanvir, N. R.; Testa, V.; Torres, M. A. P.; Valeev, A.; Vergani, S. D.; Vescovi, D.; Wainscost, R.; Watson, D.; Wiersema, K.; Wyrzykowski, L.; Yang, J.; Yang, S.; Young, D. R.
    We present the results from multi-wavelength observations of a transient discovered during an intensive follow-up campaign of S191213g, a gravitational wave (GW) event reported by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration as a possible binary neutron star merger in a low latency search. This search yielded SN 2019wxt, a young transient in a galaxy whose sky position (in the 80% GW contour) and distance (similar to SIM;150 Mpc) were plausibly compatible with the localisation uncertainty of the GW event. Initially, the transient's tightly constrained age, its relatively faint peak magnitude (M-i similar to -16.7 mag), and the r-band decline rate of similar to 1 mag per 5 days appeared suggestive of a compact binary merger. However, SN 2019wxt spectroscopically resembled a type Ib supernova, and analysis of the optical-near-infrared evolution rapidly led to the conclusion that while it could not be associated with S191213g, it nevertheless represented an extreme outcome of stellar evolution. By modelling the light curve, we estimated an ejecta mass of only similar to 0.1 M circle dot, with Ni-56 comprising similar to 20% of this. We were broadly able to reproduce its spectral evolution with a composition dominated by helium and oxygen, with trace amounts of calcium. We considered various progenitor channels that could give rise to the observed properties of SN 2019wxt and concluded that an ultra-stripped origin in a binary system is the most likely explanation. Disentangling genuine electromagnetic counterparts to GW events from transients such as SN 2019wxt soon after discovery is challenging: in a bid to characterise this level of contamination, we estimated the rate of events with a volumetric rate density comparable to that of SN 2019wxt and found that around one such event per week can occur within the typical GW localisation area of O4 alerts out to a luminosity distance of 500 Mpc, beyond which it would become fainter than the typical depth of current electromagnetic follow-up campaigns.
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    The Gas and Stellar Content of a Metal-poor Galaxy at z=8.496 as Revealed by JWST and ALMA
    (2023) Heintz, K. E.; Gimenez-Arteaga, C.; Fujimoto, S.; Brammer, G.; Espada, D.; Gillman, S.; Gonzalez-Lopez, J.; Greve, T. R.; Harikane, Y.; Hatsukade, B.; Knudsen, K. K.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Kohno, K.; Kokorev, V.; Lee, M. M.; Magdis, G. E.; Nelson, E. J.; Rizzo, F.; Sanders, R. L.; Schaerer, D.; Shapley, A. E.; Strait, V. B.; Toft, S.; Valentino, F.; van der Wel, A.; Vijayan, A. P.; Watson, D.; Bauer, F. E.; Christiansen, C. R.; Wilson, S. N.
    We present a joint analysis of the galaxy S04590 at z = 8.496 based on NIRSpec, NIRCam, and NIRISS observations obtained as part of the Early Release Observations program of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the far-infrared [C ii] 158 mu m emission line detected by dedicated Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations. We determine the physical properties of S04590 from modeling of the spectral energy distribution (SED) and through the redshifted optical nebular emission lines detected with JWST/NIRSpec. The best-fit SED model reveals a low-mass (M-? = 10(7.2)-10(8) M-?) galaxy with a low oxygen abundance of derived from the strong nebular and auroral emission lines. Assuming that [C ii] effectively traces the interstellar medium, we estimate the total gas mass of the galaxy to be M-gas = (8.0 +/- 4.0) x 10(8) M-? based on the luminosity and spatial extent of [C ii]. This yields an exceptionally high gas fraction, f(gas) = M-gas/(M-gas + M-?) ? 90%, though one still consistent with the range expected for low metallicity. We further derive the metal mass of the galaxy based on the gas mass and gas-phase metallicity, which we find to be consistent with the expected metal production from Type II supernovae. Finally, we make the first constraints on the dust-to-gas (DTG) and dust-to-metal (DTM) ratios of galaxies in the epoch of reionization at z ? 6, showing overall low mass ratios of logDTG < -3.8 and logDTM < -0.5, though they are consistent with established scaling relations and in particular with those of the local metal-poor galaxy I Zwicky 18. Our analysis highlights the synergy between ALMA and JWST in characterizing the gas, metal, and stellar content of the first generation of galaxies.
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    The host galaxy of the short GRB 111117A at z=2.211 Impact on the short GRB redshift distribution and progenitor channels
    (2018) Selsing, J.; Kruehler, T.; Malesani, D.; D'Avanzo, P.; Schulze, S.; Vergani, S. D.; Palmerio, J.; Japelj, J.; Milvang-Jensen, B.; Watson, D.; Jakobsson, P.; Bolmer, J.; Cano, Z.; Covino, S.; D'Elia, V.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Gomboc, A.; Heintz, K. E.; Kaper, L.; Levan, A. J.; Piranomonte, S.; Pugliese, G.; Sanchez-Ramirez, R.; Sparre, M.; Tanvir, N. R.; Thone, C. C.; Wiersema, K.
    It is notoriously difficult to localize short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) and their hosts to measure their redshifts. These measurements, however, are critical for constraining the nature of sGRB progenitors, their redshift distribution, and the r-process element enrichment history of the universe. Here we present spectroscopy of the host galaxy of GRB 111117A and measure its redshift to be z = 2.211. This makes GRB 111117A the most distant high-confidence short duration GRB detected to date. Our spectroscopic redshift supersedes a lower, previously estimated photometric redshift value for this burst. We use the spectroscopic redshift, as well as new imaging data to constrain the nature of the host galaxy and the physical parameters of the GRB. The rest-frame X-ray derived hydrogen column density, for example, is the highest compared to a complete sample of sGRBs and seems to follow the evolution with redshift as traced by the hosts of long GRBs. From the detection of Ly alpha emission in the spectrum, we are able to constrain the escape fraction of Ly alpha in the host. The host lies in the brighter end of the expected sGRB host brightness distribution at z = 2 : 211, and is actively forming stars. Using the observed sGRB host luminosity distribution, we find that between 43% and 71% of all Swift-detected sGRBs have hosts that are too faint at z similar to 2 to allow for a secure redshift determination. This implies that the measured sGRB redshift distribution could be incomplete at high redshift. The high z of GRB 111117A is evidence against a lognormal delay-time model for sGRBs through the predicted redshift distribution of sGRBs, which is very sensitive to high-z sGRBs. From the age of the universe at the time of GRB explosion, an initial neutron star (NS) separation of a(0) < 3.1 R-circle dot is required in the case where the progenitor system is a circular pair of inspiralling NSs. This constraint excludes some of the longest sGRB formation channels for this burst.