ALBERT

Description: Abundances of galaxies at redshifts z  〉 4 are difficult to obtain from damped Lyα (DLA) systems in the sightlines of quasars (QSOs) due to the Lyα forest blanketing and the low number of high-redshift QSOs known to date. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with their higher luminosity are well suited to study galaxies out to the formation of the first stars at z  〉 10. The large wavelength coverage of the X-shooter spectrograph makes it an excellent tool to study the interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies, in particular if the redshift is not known beforehand. In this paper, we determine the properties of a GRB host at z  = 4.667 23 from absorption lines combined with X-ray and optical imaging data. This is one of the highest redshifts where a detailed analysis with medium-resolution data is possible. We measure a relatively high metallicity of [S/H] = –1.1 ± 0.2 for a galaxy at this redshift. Assuming ultraviolet pumping as origin for the fine-structure lines, the material observed is between 0.3 and 1.0 kpc from the GRB. The extinction determined by the spectral slope from X-rays to the infrared shows a moderate value of A V  = 0.13 ± 0.05 mag and relative abundances point to a warm disc extinction pattern. Low- and high-ionization as well as fine-structure lines show a complicated kinematic structure probably pointing to a merger in progress. We also detect one intervening system at z  = 2.18. GRB-DLAs have a shallower evolution of metallicity with redshift than QSO absorbers and no evolution in their H i column density or ionization fraction. GRB hosts at high redshifts seem to continue the trend of the metallicity–luminosity relation towards lower metallicities but the sample is still too small to draw a definite conclusion. While the detection of GRBs at z  〉 4 with current satellites is still difficult, they are very important for our understanding of the early epochs of star and galaxy formation.

Description: Biochemistry DOI: 10.1021/acs.biochem.5b00419

Description: [1]  The observed γ -ray fluence distribution of Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes (TGFs) detected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) is altered by instrumental effects. We perform corrections for deadtime, pulse pile-up and detection efficiency in a model independent manner. A sample of 106 GBM TGFs is selected to include both TGFs which triggered GBM and weaker TGFs found using an offline search. Detector deadtime and pulse pile-up lower the observed fluence of each TGF and the detection efficiency causes weaker TGFs to have a lower probability of detection than brighter TGFs. Monte Carlo simulations are performed in each case to correct for these effects. The corrected fluence distribution is well fit with a power-law of index α  = –2.20 ± 0.13. This is consistent with previous estimates using other techniques. Neither a high-fluence cut-off nor a low-fluence limit is found. The fluence distribution is also expressed in units of TGF hour –1  km –2 versus photons cm –2 per TGF.

Description: The Gamma-Ray Burst Monitor (GBM) on the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (Fermi) detected 50 terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) during its first 20 months of operation. The high efficiency and large area of the GBM detectors, combined with their fine timing capabilities and relatively high throughput, allow unprecedented studies of the temporal properties of TGFs. The TGF pulses are observed to have durations as brief as ∼0.05 ms, shorter than previously measured. There is a relatively narrow distribution of pulse durations; the majority of pulses have total durations between 0.10 and 0.40 ms. In some TGF events, risetimes as short as ∼0.01 ms and falltimes as short as ∼0.03 ms are observed. Three of the 50 TGFs presented here have well-separated, double peaks. Perhaps as many as 10 other TGFs show evidence, to varying degrees, of overlapping peaks. Weak emission is seen at the leading or trailing edges of some events. Five of the 50 TGFs are considerably longer than usual; these are believed to be caused by incident electrons transported from a TGF at the geomagnetic conjugate point. TGF temporal properties can be used to discriminate between models of the origin of TGFs and also provide some basic physical properties of the TGF process.

Description: An optical transient within the error box of the gamma ray burst GRB 970508 was imaged 4 hours after the event. It displayed a strong ultraviolet excess, and reached maximum brightness 2 days later. The optical spectra did not show any emission lines, and no variations on time scales of minutes were observed for 1 hour during the decline phase. According to the fireball and afterglow models, the intensity should rise monotonically before the observed optical maximum, but the data indicate that another physical mechanism may be responsible for the constant phase seen during the first hours after the burst.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Castro-Tirado -- Gorosabel -- Benitez -- Wolf -- Fockenbrock -- Martinez-Gonzalez -- Kristen -- Broeils -- Pedersen -- Greiner -- Costa -- Feroci -- Piro -- Frontera -- Nicastro -- Palazzi -- Bartolini -- Guarnieri -- Masetti -- Piccioni -- Mignoli -- Wold -- Lacy -- Birkle -- Broadhurst -- et -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1998 Feb 13;279(5353):1011-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉A. J. Castro-Tirado and J. Gorosabel, Laboratorio de Astrofisica Espacial y Fisica Fundamental, INTA, Madrid, Spain. N. Benitez and E. Martinez-Gonzalez, Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria, Santander, Spain. C. Wolf, R. Fockenbrock, K. Birkle, Ma.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9461429" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Broad-band (ultraviolet to near-infrared) observations of the intense gamma ray burst GRB 990123 started approximately 8.5 hours after the event and continued until 18 February 1999. When combined with other data, in particular from the Robotic Telescope and Transient Source Experiment (ROTSE) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), evidence emerges for a smoothly declining light curve, suggesting some color dependence that could be related to a cooling break passing the ultraviolet-optical band at about 1 day after the high-energy event. The steeper decline rate seen after 1.5 to 2 days may be evidence for a collimated jet pointing toward the observer.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Castro-Tirado -- Zapatero-Osorio -- Caon -- Cairos -- Hjorth -- Pedersen -- Andersen -- Gorosabel -- Bartolini -- Guarnieri -- Piccioni -- Frontera -- Masetti -- Palazzi -- Pian -- Greiner -- Hudec -- Sagar -- Pandey -- Mohan V -- Yadav -- Nilakshi -- Bjornsson -- Jakobsson -- Burud I -- et -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Mar 26;283(5410):2069-73.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Astronomical Observatory, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Nordic Optical Telescope, La Palma, T.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10092226" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Highly luminous rapid flares are characteristic of processes around compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. In the high-energy regime of X-rays and gamma-rays, outbursts with variabilities on timescales of seconds or less are routinely observed, for example in gamma-ray bursts or soft gamma-ray repeaters. At optical wavelengths, flaring activity on such timescales has not been observed, other than from the prompt phase of one exceptional gamma-ray burst. This is mostly due to the fact that outbursts with strong, fast flaring are usually discovered in the high-energy regime; most optical follow-up observations of such transients use instruments with integration times exceeding tens of seconds, which are therefore unable to resolve fast variability. Here we show the observation of extremely bright and rapid optical flaring in the Galactic transient SWIFT J195509.6+261406. Our optical light curves are phenomenologically similar to high-energy light curves of soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray pulsars, which are thought to be neutron stars with extremely high magnetic fields (magnetars). This suggests that similar processes are in operation, but with strong emission in the optical, unlike in the case of other known magnetars.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Stefanescu, A -- Kanbach, G -- Slowikowska, A -- Greiner, J -- McBreen, S -- Sala, G -- England -- Nature. 2008 Sep 25;455(7212):503-5. doi: 10.1038/nature07308.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, PO Box 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany. astefan@mpe.mpg.de〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818651" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the explosions of certain massive stars, and some are bright enough that they should be observable out to redshifts of z 〉 20 using current technology. Hitherto, the highest redshift measured for any object was z = 6.96, for a Lyman-alpha emitting galaxy. Here we report that GRB 090423 lies at a redshift of z approximately 8.2, implying that massive stars were being produced and dying as GRBs approximately 630 Myr after the Big Bang. The burst also pinpoints the location of its host galaxy.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Tanvir, N R -- Fox, D B -- Levan, A J -- Berger, E -- Wiersema, K -- Fynbo, J P U -- Cucchiara, A -- Kruhler, T -- Gehrels, N -- Bloom, J S -- Greiner, J -- Evans, P A -- Rol, E -- Olivares, F -- Hjorth, J -- Jakobsson, P -- Farihi, J -- Willingale, R -- Starling, R L C -- Cenko, S B -- Perley, D -- Maund, J R -- Duke, J -- Wijers, R A M J -- Adamson, A J -- Allan, A -- Bremer, M N -- Burrows, D N -- Castro-Tirado, A J -- Cavanagh, B -- de Ugarte Postigo, A -- Dopita, M A -- Fatkhullin, T A -- Fruchter, A S -- Foley, R J -- Gorosabel, J -- Kennea, J -- Kerr, T -- Klose, S -- Krimm, H A -- Komarova, V N -- Kulkarni, S R -- Moskvitin, A S -- Mundell, C G -- Naylor, T -- Page, K -- Penprase, B E -- Perri, M -- Podsiadlowski, P -- Roth, K -- Rutledge, R E -- Sakamoto, T -- Schady, P -- Schmidt, B P -- Soderberg, A M -- Sollerman, J -- Stephens, A W -- Stratta, G -- Ukwatta, T N -- Watson, D -- Westra, E -- Wold, T -- Wolf, C -- England -- Nature. 2009 Oct 29;461(7268):1254-7. doi: 10.1038/nature08459.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. nrt3@star.le.ac.uk〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19865165" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A cornerstone of Einstein's special relativity is Lorentz invariance-the postulate that all observers measure exactly the same speed of light in vacuum, independent of photon-energy. While special relativity assumes that there is no fundamental length-scale associated with such invariance, there is a fundamental scale (the Planck scale, l(Planck) approximately 1.62 x 10(-33) cm or E(Planck) = M(Planck)c(2) approximately 1.22 x 10(19) GeV), at which quantum effects are expected to strongly affect the nature of space-time. There is great interest in the (not yet validated) idea that Lorentz invariance might break near the Planck scale. A key test of such violation of Lorentz invariance is a possible variation of photon speed with energy. Even a tiny variation in photon speed, when accumulated over cosmological light-travel times, may be revealed by observing sharp features in gamma-ray burst (GRB) light-curves. Here we report the detection of emission up to approximately 31 GeV from the distant and short GRB 090510. We find no evidence for the violation of Lorentz invariance, and place a lower limit of 1.2E(Planck) on the scale of a linear energy dependence (or an inverse wavelength dependence), subject to reasonable assumptions about the emission (equivalently we have an upper limit of l(Planck)/1.2 on the length scale of the effect). Our results disfavour quantum-gravity theories in which the quantum nature of space-time on a very small scale linearly alters the speed of light.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Abdo, A A -- Ackermann, M -- Ajello, M -- Asano, K -- Atwood, W B -- Axelsson, M -- Baldini, L -- Ballet, J -- Barbiellini, G -- Baring, M G -- Bastieri, D -- Bechtol, K -- Bellazzini, R -- Berenji, B -- Bhat, P N -- Bissaldi, E -- Bloom, E D -- Bonamente, E -- Bonnell, J -- Borgland, A W -- Bouvier, A -- Bregeon, J -- Brez, A -- Briggs, M S -- Brigida, M -- Bruel, P -- Burgess, J M -- Burnett, T H -- Caliandro, G A -- Cameron, R A -- Caraveo, P A -- Casandjian, J M -- Cecchi, C -- Celik, O -- Chaplin, V -- Charles, E -- Cheung, C C -- Chiang, J -- Ciprini, S -- Claus, R -- Cohen-Tanugi, J -- Cominsky, L R -- Connaughton, V -- Conrad, J -- Cutini, S -- Dermer, C D -- de Angelis, A -- de Palma, F -- Digel, S W -- Dingus, B L -- do Couto E Silva, E -- Drell, P S -- Dubois, R -- Dumora, D -- Farnier, C -- Favuzzi, C -- Fegan, S J -- Finke, J -- Fishman, G -- Focke, W B -- Foschini, L -- Fukazawa, Y -- Funk, S -- Fusco, P -- Gargano, F -- Gasparrini, D -- Gehrels, N -- Germani, S -- Gibby, L -- Giebels, B -- Giglietto, N -- Giordano, F -- Glanzman, T -- Godfrey, G -- Granot, J -- Greiner, J -- Grenier, I A -- Grondin, M-H -- Grove, J E -- Grupe, D -- Guillemot, L -- Guiriec, S -- Hanabata, Y -- Harding, A K -- Hayashida, M -- Hays, E -- Hoversten, E A -- Hughes, R E -- Johannesson, G -- Johnson, A S -- Johnson, R P -- Johnson, W N -- Kamae, T -- Katagiri, H -- Kataoka, J -- Kawai, N -- Kerr, M -- Kippen, R M -- Knodlseder, J -- Kocevski, D -- Kouveliotou, C -- Kuehn, F -- Kuss, M -- Lande, J -- Latronico, L -- Lemoine-Goumard, M -- Longo, F -- Loparco, F -- Lott, B -- Lovellette, M N -- Lubrano, P -- Madejski, G M -- Makeev, A -- Mazziotta, M N -- McBreen, S -- McEnery, J E -- McGlynn, S -- Meszaros, P -- Meurer, C -- Michelson, P F -- Mitthumsiri, W -- Mizuno, T -- Moiseev, A A -- Monte, C -- Monzani, M E -- Moretti, E -- Morselli, A -- Moskalenko, I V -- Murgia, S -- Nakamori, T -- Nolan, P L -- Norris, J P -- Nuss, E -- Ohno, M -- Ohsugi, T -- Omodei, N -- Orlando, E -- Ormes, J F -- Ozaki, M -- Paciesas, W S -- Paneque, D -- Panetta, J H -- Parent, D -- Pelassa, V -- Pepe, M -- Pesce-Rollins, M -- Petrosian, V -- Piron, F -- Porter, T A -- Preece, R -- Raino, S -- Ramirez-Ruiz, E -- Rando, R -- Razzano, M -- Razzaque, S -- Reimer, A -- Reimer, O -- Reposeur, T -- Ritz, S -- Rochester, L S -- Rodriguez, A Y -- Roth, M -- Ryde, F -- Sadrozinski, H F-W -- Sanchez, D -- Sander, A -- Saz Parkinson, P M -- Scargle, J D -- Schalk, T L -- Sgro, C -- Siskind, E J -- Smith, D A -- Smith, P D -- Spandre, G -- Spinelli, P -- Stamatikos, M -- Stecker, F W -- Strickman, M S -- Suson, D J -- Tajima, H -- Takahashi, H -- Takahashi, T -- Tanaka, T -- Thayer, J B -- Thayer, J G -- Thompson, D J -- Tibaldo, L -- Toma, K -- Torres, D F -- Tosti, G -- Troja, E -- Uchiyama, Y -- Uehara, T -- Usher, T L -- van der Horst, A J -- Vasileiou, V -- Vilchez, N -- Vitale, V -- von Kienlin, A -- Waite, A P -- Wang, P -- Wilson-Hodge, C -- Winer, B L -- Wood, K S -- Wu, X F -- Yamazaki, R -- Ylinen, T -- Ziegler, M -- England -- Nature. 2009 Nov 19;462(7271):331-4. doi: 10.1038/nature08574. Epub 2009 Oct 28.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Space Science Division, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, District of Columbia 20375, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19865083" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: A new class of ultra-long-duration (more than 10,000 seconds) gamma-ray bursts has recently been suggested. They may originate in the explosion of stars with much larger radii than those producing normal long-duration gamma-ray bursts or in the tidal disruption of a star. No clear supernova has yet been associated with an ultra-long-duration gamma-ray burst. Here we report that a supernova (SN 2011kl) was associated with the ultra-long-duration gamma-ray burst GRB 111209A, at a redshift z of 0.677. This supernova is more than three times more luminous than type Ic supernovae associated with long-duration gamma-ray bursts, and its spectrum is distinctly different. The slope of the continuum resembles those of super-luminous supernovae, but extends further down into the rest-frame ultraviolet implying a low metal content. The light curve evolves much more rapidly than those of super-luminous supernovae. This combination of high luminosity and low metal-line opacity cannot be reconciled with typical type Ic supernovae, but can be reproduced by a model where extra energy is injected by a strongly magnetized neutron star (a magnetar), which has also been proposed as the explanation for super-luminous supernovae.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Greiner, Jochen -- Mazzali, Paolo A -- Kann, D Alexander -- Kruhler, Thomas -- Pian, Elena -- Prentice, Simon -- Olivares E, Felipe -- Rossi, Andrea -- Klose, Sylvio -- Taubenberger, Stefan -- Knust, Fabian -- Afonso, Paulo M J -- Ashall, Chris -- Bolmer, Jan -- Delvaux, Corentin -- Diehl, Roland -- Elliott, Jonathan -- Filgas, Robert -- Fynbo, Johan P U -- Graham, John F -- Guelbenzu, Ana Nicuesa -- Kobayashi, Shiho -- Leloudas, Giorgos -- Savaglio, Sandra -- Schady, Patricia -- Schmidl, Sebastian -- Schweyer, Tassilo -- Sudilovsky, Vladimir -- Tanga, Mohit -- Updike, Adria C -- van Eerten, Hendrik -- Varela, Karla -- England -- Nature. 2015 Jul 9;523(7559):189-92. doi: 10.1038/nature14579.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universitat Munchen, Boltzmannstrasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany. ; 1] Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Browlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK [2] Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universitat Munchen, Boltzmannstrasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany [3] Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany. ; European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile. ; 1] INAF, Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics, via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy [2] Scuola Normale Superiore, Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, I-56126 Pisa, Italy. ; Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Browlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK. ; Departamento de Ciencias Fisicas, Universidad Andres Bello, Avenida Republica 252, Santiago, Chile. ; 1] Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany [2] INAF, Institute of Space Astrophysics and Cosmic Physics, via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy. ; Thuringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany. ; Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany. ; American River College, Physics and Astronomy Department, 4700 College Oak Drive, Sacramento, California 95841, USA. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] Technische Universitat Munchen, Physik Department, James-Franck-Strasse, 85748 Garching, Germany. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] Astrophysics Data System, Harvard-Smithonian Center for Astrophysics, Garden Street 60, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. ; Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Horska 3a/22, 128 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic. ; DARK Cosmology Center, Niels-Bohr-Institut, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Kobenhavn, Denmark. ; 1] DARK Cosmology Center, Niels-Bohr-Institut, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Kobenhavn, Denmark [2] Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel. ; 1] Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany [2] Universita della Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende, via P. Bucci, Italy. ; Roger Williams University, 1 Old Ferry Road, Bristol, Rhode Island 02809, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26156372" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉