The Density and Ionization Profile of Optically Dark and High Redshift GRBs Probed by X-ray Absorption

TL;DR

This study investigates how the X-ray absorption column density of gamma-ray bursts evolves with redshift, revealing a significant increase that suggests more massive progenitors and denser environments at higher redshifts, affecting GRB luminosity and darkness.

Contribution

The paper introduces a robust method to analyze NHX evolution with redshift, accounting for selection biases, and demonstrates its significance and implications for GRB progenitor environments.

Findings

NHX increases with redshift following a power law of (1+z)^{1.39}

Optically dark GRBs have systematically larger NHX than normal GRBs

Darkness is likely due to denser environments, not intrinsic properties

Abstract

The X-ray column density (NHX) of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can probe the local environment of their progenitors over a wide redshift range. Previous work has suggested an increasing trend as a function of redshift. The relevance of the current analysis relies on investigating the selection bias method, such as the effect of the X-ray spectrum in high-redshift GRBs, which complicates the measurement of small NHX, have yet to be fully evaluated or discussed elsewhere. In this work, we evaluated these effects through simulations to define appropriate observational limits in the NHX versus redshift plane. We then applied a one-sided nonparametric method developed by Efron and Petrosian. Within the framework of this method, we investigated the redshift dependence of NHX and the local distribution function. Our results show that the evolution of NHX with redshift firmly exists with a significance of more than four sigma and follows a power law of $(1+z)^{1.39 (+0.22, -0.27)}$. Based on these analyses and previous studies, the GRB progenitor mass varies but is more massive in the high redshift environment and has a higher gas column density. This suggests that part of the luminosity evolution of GRBs, which has been widely reported, may be due to the evolution of the progenitor's mass. Using the same method, we demonstrate that optically dark GRBs show a consistent evolution as $(1+z)^{1.15(+0.67, -0.83)}$. By applying the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test, it is shown that optically dark GRBs have statistically identical flux and photon index distributions compared to normal GRBs, but the NHX is systematically larger. This result suggests that the darkness of some GRB populations is not due to an intrinsic mechanism, but that a higher density surrounds them.