A Spatially Resolved Study of the GRB 020903 Host Complex.
GRB 020903 is a long-duration gamma ray burst (LGRB) with a host galaxy close enough and extended enough for spatially-resolved observations, making it one of less than a dozen GRBs where such host studies are possible. GRB 020903 lies in a galaxy host complex that appears to consist of four interacting components. Here we present the results of spatially-resolved spectroscopic observations of the GRB 020903 host. By taking observations at two different position angles we were able to obtain optical spectra (3600-9000{\AA}) of multiple regions in the host complex. After examining the data we conclude that the GRB 020903 host is not, as previously believed, composed of four interacting regions - two are star-forming regions at the same redshift as the GRB explosion site (z=0.251), while two others appear to comprise a background star-forming galaxy at z=0.662. We also measure the metallicities of the two regions at the redshift of GRB 020903, and find that the explosion site and the nearby star-forming region both have metallicities of log(O/H)+12 ~ 8.1 +/- 0.2. We conclude that, in agreement with past spatially-resolved studies of GRBs, the GRB explosion site is representative of the host galaxy as a whole rather than localized in a metal-poor region of the galaxy.
Publisher URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/1707.07697
DOI: arXiv:1707.07697v2
Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.
Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.