Effective absorbing column density in the gamma-ray burst afterglow X-ray spectra
May 16, 20146 pages
Published in:
- Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 441 (2014) 4, 3634-3639
- Published: Jul 11, 2014
e-Print:
- 1405.4114 [astro-ph.HE]
DOI:
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Abstract: (Oxford University Press)
We investigate the scaling relation between the observed amount of absorption in the X-ray spectra of gamma-ray burst afterglows and the absorber redshift. Through dedicated numerical simulations of an ideal instrument, we establish that this dependence has a power-law shape with index 2.4. However, for real instruments, this value depends on their low-energy cut-off, spectral resolution and on the detector spectral response in general. We thus provide appropriate scaling laws for specific instruments. Finally, we discuss the possibility to measure the absorber redshift from X-ray data alone. We find that 10^5-10^6 counts in the 0.3–10 keV band are needed to constrain the redshift with 10 per cent accuracy. As a test case, we discuss the XMM–Newton observation of GRB 090618 at z = 0.54. We are able to recover the correct redshift of this burst with the expected accuracy.Note:
- MNRAS accepted. 6 figures. 3 tables
- gamma-ray burst: general
- gamma-ray burst: individual: GRB 090618
- X-rays: general
- X-rays: ISM
References(38)
Figures(8)