Probing the cosmic reionization history and local environment of gamma‐ray bursts through radio dispersion

By S. Inoue. 2003

205 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We discuss the effect of dispersion delay due to intervening ionized media in the radio emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). For high-redshift GRBs (z ≥ 3), the ionized intergalactic medium (IGM) should be the dominant source of dispersion without substantial local or foreground contamination, offering a unique probe of the cosmic reionization epoch through measures of the free-electron column density out to different redshifts. The delay times from z ∼ 10 can be ∼1 h at 100 MHz and ∼10 h at 30 MHz. On the other hand, dispersion by local ionized material may be important for GRBs at lower redshifts if they occur inside or behind dense molecular clouds, providing clues to the GRB environment; free-free absorption may also be significant in this case. Detecting dispersion delay in the known radio afterglow emission should be extremely challenging due to the low fluxes at the relevant frequencies, but may be marginally possible for rare, bright afterglows by the Square Kilometer Array. If GRBs also emit prompt, coherent radio emission as predicted by Sagiv & Waxman, the observational prospects can be much better; detection of a sufficient sample of high-z GRBs by the Low-Frequency Array may allow discrimination of different reionization histories. Interesting constraints on the low-redshift, warm-hot IGM may also be obtainable through dispersion.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cfe79a2f4d367ef8efade0866fc1184fc95a9026

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Citations in the corpus

COSMOLOGICAL FAST RADIO BURSTS FROM BINARY WHITE DWARF MERGERS (2013, methodology): “By combining the dispersion measure of the FRBs, one could put unique constraints on cosmological parameters (since the luminosity distance and the dispersion measure have different dependences on the redshift) and the cosmological reionization history (Ioka 2003; Inoue 2004).”
A Multi-telescope Campaign on FRB 121102: Implications for the FRB Population (2017, background): “Volumetric Rate of FRB Sources Thornton et al. (2013) estimated an isotropic rate of FRB events of 10−3 galaxy−1 yr−1 by calculating the number of Milky Way-type galaxies out to a distance implied by assming all extragalactic DM originates in the IGM (z ≈ 0.9 for DM≈ z× 900 pc cm−3; Ioka 2003; Inoue”
Probing Galactic Halos with Fast Radio Bursts (2019, background): “One edge of the PDF smoothly follows the DMIGM track, in part because we do not include any scatter in that term.”
Fast Radio Burst Morphology in the First CHIME/FRB Catalog (2021, background): “…open questions in astrophysics, such as weighing the “missing” baryons in the intergalactic medium (e.g., McQuinn 2014; Macquart et al. 2020), measuring the reionization history of the universe (e.g., Inoue 2004), and the optical depth of the cosmic microwave background (e.g., Fialkov & Loeb 2016).”
The First Cosmic Structures and Their Effects (2004, background): “Both SKA and LOFAR should be able to detect bright afterglows and measure the DM towards high redshift GRBs (Ioka 2003; Inoue 2004).”
COSMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF FAST RADIO BURST/GAMMA-RAY BURST ASSOCIATIONS (2013, background): “Ioka (2003) and Inoue (2004) have derived some equations of DMIGM for a fully ionized, pure hydrogen plasma.”
Fast radio bursts: search sensitivities and completeness (2014, unknown): “…2012; Bannister & Madsen 2014): we use this to gauge a reasonable uncertainty in the maximum Milky Way contribution to each event’s DM. Subtracting this contribution one can invoke a model relating DM and redshift (Ioka 2003; Inoue 2004) to derive an upper limit redshift estimate for each event.”
Science with the Murchison Widefield Array (2012, methodology): “They will enable new studies of diffuse photodissociation zones that lie between molecular clouds and the general ISM and yield estimates for electron temperature and density in these regions.”
The CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project: System Overview (2018, background): “Assuming standard estimates for the intergalactic free electron density (e.g. Inoue 2004), as well as reasonable estimates for the DM contribution from host galaxies, the events appear to be from cos- 1 www.naic.edu 2 See the online FRB catalog at www.frbcat.org.”
A burst in a wind bubble and the impact on baryonic ejecta: high-energy gamma-ray flashes and afterglows from fast radio bursts and pulsar-driven supernova remnants (2016, background): “If the dispersion originates mainly from the intergalactic propagation (Ioka 2003; Inoue 2004), the sources can be at cosmological distance up to z ∼ 1 (but see, e.g., Loeb, Shvartzvald & Maoz 2014; Maoz et al. 2015), and a high brightness temperature requires a coherent emission mechanism (e.g.,…”
Five new fast radio bursts from the HTRU high-latitude survey at Parkes: First evidence for two-component bursts (2015, methodology): “The intergalactic medium (IGM) DM contribution is calculated using the models of Ioka (2003) and Inoue (2004), from which we can also estimate a corresponding redshift.”
LOCATING THE “MISSING” BARYONS WITH EXTRAGALACTIC DISPERSION MEASURE ESTIMATES (2013, background): “Previous theoretical investigations of the uses of extragalactic DM measurements assumed a homogeneous universe (Ioka 2003; Inoue 2004).”
THE GALACTIC POSITION DEPENDENCE OF FAST RADIO BURSTS AND THE DISCOVERY OF FRB011025 (2014, methodology): “Assuming the fully-ionized IGM model of Inoue (2004) and attributing all of DME to dispersion in the IGM, we get an upper limit on redshift for our burst of z ≤ 0.69.”