Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2010

Publication Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Volume

406

Issue

4

Publisher

Wiley

Abstract

We present observations and analysis of the broad-band afterglow of Swift GRB 071025. Using optical and infrared (RIYJHK) photometry, we derive a photometric redshift of 4.4 < 5.2; at this redshift our simultaneous multicolour observations begin at ∼30 s after the gamma-ray burst trigger in the host frame, during the initial rising phase of the afterglow. We associate the light-curve peak at ∼580 s in the observer frame with the formation of the forward shock, giving an estimate of the initial Lorentz factor 0 ∼ 200. The red spectral energy distribution (even in regions not affected by the Lyman α break) provides secure evidence of a large dust column. However, the inferred extinction curve shows a prominent flat component between 2000 and 3000 Å in the rest frame, inconsistent with any locally observed template but well fitted by models of dust formed by supernovae. Time-dependent fits to the extinction profile reveal no evidence of dust destruction and limit the decrease in the extinction column to A3000 < 0.54 mag after t = 50 s in the rest frame. Together with studies of high-z quasars, our observations suggest a transition in dust properties in the early Universe, possibly associated with a transition between supernova-dominated and asymptotic giant branch-dominated modes of dust production.

Comments

This manuscript has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Please find the published version here (note that a subscription is necessary to access this version):

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16772.x/full

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