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

Article

关键词: HOST GALAXIES;    MASSIVE STARS;    REDSHIFT;    AFTERGLOW;    SPECTROSCOPY;    CONSTRAINTS;    PROGENITOR;    EMISSION;    SEARCH;   

DOI  :  10.1038/nature04787

来源: SCIE

【 摘 要 】

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 gamma-ray burst. One would then expect that these long gamma-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 gamma-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 gamma-ray bursts are significantly fainter and more irregular than the hosts of the core-collapse supernovae. Together these results suggest that long-duration gamma-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 gamma-ray bursts are relatively rare in galaxies such as our own Milky Way.

【 授权许可】

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