Long γ-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae have different environments

A. S. Fruchter (), A. J. Levan, L. Strolger, P. M. Vreeswijk, S. E. Thorsett, D. Bersier, I. Burud, J. M. Castro Cerón, A. J. Castro-Tirado, C. Conselice, T. Dahlen, H. C. Ferguson, J. P. U. Fynbo, P. M. Garnavich, R. A. Gibbons, J. Gorosabel, T. R. Gull, J. Hjorth, S. T. Holland, C. Kouveliotou, Z. Levay, M. Livio, M. R. Metzger, P. E. Nugent, L. Petro, E. Pian, J. E. Rhoads, A. G. Riess, K. C. Sahu, A. Smette, N. R. Tanvir, R. A. M. J. Wijers and S. E. Woosley
Additional contact information
A. S. Fruchter: Space Telescope Science Institute
A. J. Levan: Space Telescope Science Institute
L. Strolger: Space Telescope Science Institute
P. M. Vreeswijk: European Southern Observatory
S. E. Thorsett: University of California
D. Bersier: Space Telescope Science Institute
I. Burud: Space Telescope Science Institute
J. M. Castro Cerón: Space Telescope Science Institute
A. J. Castro-Tirado: Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC)
C. Conselice: California Institute of Technology
T. Dahlen: Stockholm University
H. C. Ferguson: Space Telescope Science Institute
J. P. U. Fynbo: Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
P. M. Garnavich: University of Notre Dame
R. A. Gibbons: Space Telescope Science Institute
J. Gorosabel: Space Telescope Science Institute
T. R. Gull: Code 667, Extraterrestial Planets and Stellar Astrophysics, Exploration of the Universe Division
J. Hjorth: Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen
S. T. Holland: Code 660.1, Goddard Space Flight Center
C. Kouveliotou: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, VP-62, National Space Science & Technology Center
Z. Levay: Space Telescope Science Institute
M. Livio: Space Telescope Science Institute
M. R. Metzger: Renaissance Technologies Corporation
P. E. Nugent: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, MS 50F-1650
L. Petro: Space Telescope Science Institute
E. Pian: INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
J. E. Rhoads: Space Telescope Science Institute
A. G. Riess: Space Telescope Science Institute
K. C. Sahu: Space Telescope Science Institute
A. Smette: European Southern Observatory
N. R. Tanvir: Centre for Astrophysics Research, University of Hertfordshire
R. A. M. J. Wijers: Astronomical Institute ‘Anton Pannekoek’, University of Amsterdam
S. E. Woosley: University of California

Nature, 2006, vol. 441, issue 7092, 463-468

Abstract: Abstract When massive stars exhaust their fuel, they collapse and often produce the extraordinarily bright explosions known as core-collapse supernovae. On occasion, this stellar collapse also powers an even more brilliant relativistic explosion known as a long-duration γ-ray burst. One would then expect that these long γ-ray bursts and core-collapse supernovae should be found in similar galactic environments. Here we show that this expectation is wrong. We find that the γ-ray bursts are far more concentrated in the very brightest regions of their host galaxies than are the core-collapse supernovae. Furthermore, the host galaxies of the long γ-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the core-collapse supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration γ-ray bursts are associated with the most extremely massive stars and may be restricted to galaxies of limited chemical evolution. Our results directly imply that long γ-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own Milky Way.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04787 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:441:y:2006:i:7092:d:10.1038_nature04787

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature04787

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().