Abstract
We present UBVRIZJsHKs broad band photometry of the host galaxy of the dark gamma-ray burst (GRB) of February 10, 2000. These observations represent the most exhaustive photometry given to date of any GRB host galaxy. A grid of spectral templates have been fitted to the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) of the host. The derived photometric redshift is z=0.842^+0.054_-0.042, which is in excellent agreement with the spectroscopic redshift (z=0.8463+/-0.0002) proposed by Piro et al. (2002) based on a single emission line. Furthermore, we have determined the photometric redshift of all the galaxies in an area of 6'x6' around the host galaxy, in order to check for their overdensity in the environment of the host. We find that the GRB 000210 host galaxy is a subluminous galaxy (L ~ 0.5+/-0.2 L*), with no companions above our detection threshold of 0.18+/-0.06 L*. Based on the restframe ultraviolet flux a star formation rate of 2.1+/-0.2 Solar Masses per year is estimated. The best fit to the SED is obtained for a starburst template with an age of 0.181^+0.037_-0.026 Gyr and a very low extinction (Av~0). We discuss the implications of the inferred low value of Av and the age of the dominant stellar population for the non detection of the GRB 000210 optical afterglow.
Highlights
The origin of cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) remains one of the great mysteries of modern astronomy
By determining the Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) and star formation rate (SFR) of a sample of GRB host galaxies we can distinguish between these two families of GRB progenitor models
We have presented an intensive UBVRIZJsHKs broad band photometry of the GRB 000210 host galaxy which has allowed us to determine its photometric redshift
Summary
The origin of cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) remains one of the great mysteries of modern astronomy (van Paradijs et al 2000). There are at present mainly two sets of models for GRBs. One set of models predicts that GRBs occur when two collapsed objects (such as black holes or neutron stars) merge (Eichler et al 1989; Mochkovitch et al 1993). The time-scale for binary compact objects to merge is large ( 1 Gyr), so GRBs can occur after massive star formation has ended in a galaxy. The other major set of models predicts that GRBs are associated with the death of massive stars (supernovae or hypernovae) (Woosley 1993; Paczynski 1998; MacFadyen & Woosley 1999). In this case GRBs will coincide with the epoch of star formation in the host. Optical and/or infrared afterglows have been observed for ∼40 GRBs, and the majority of these coincide with starforming galaxies
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