Fast X-ray transient EP240315A from a Lyman-continuum-leaking galaxy at z ≈ 5

IF 14.3 1区物理与天体物理 Q1 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS

Nature Astronomy Pub Date : 2025-08-19 DOI:10.1038/s41550-025-02612-9

Andrew J. Levan, Peter G. Jonker, Andrea Saccardi, Daniele Bjørn Malesani, Nial R. Tanvir, Luca Izzo, Kasper E. Heintz, Daniel Mata Sánchez, Jonathan Quirola-Vásquez, Manuel A. P. Torres, Susanna D. Vergani, Steve Schulze, Andrea Rossi, Paolo D’Avanzo, Benjamin P. Gompertz, Antonio Martin-Carrillo, Antonio de Ugarte Postigo, Benjamin Schneider, Weimin Yuan, Zhixing Ling, Wenjie Zhang, Xuan Mao, Yuan Liu, Hui Sun, Dong Xu, Zipei Zhu, José Feliciano Agüí Fernández, Lorenzo Amati, Franz E. Bauer, Sergio Campana, Francesco Carotenuto, Ashley Chrimes, Joyce N. D. van Dalen, Valerio D’Elia, Massimo Della Valle, Massimiliano De Pasquale, Vikram S. Dhillon, Lluís Galbany, Nicola Gaspari, Giulia Gianfagna, Andreja Gomboc, Nusrin Habeeb, Dieter Hartmann, Agnes P. C. van Hoof, Youdong Hu, Pall Jakobsson, Yashaswi Julakanti, Judith Korth, Chryssa Kouveliotou, Tanmoy Laskar, Stuart P. Littlefair, Elisabetta Maiorano, Jirong Mao, Andrea Melandri, M. Coleman Miller, Tamal Mukherjee, Samantha R. Oates, Paul O’Brien, Jesse T. Palmerio, Hannu Parviainen, Daniëlle L. A. Pieterse, Silvia Piranomonte, Luigi Piro, Giovanna Pugliese, Maria E. Ravasio, Ben Rayson, Ruben Salvaterra, Rubén Sánchez-Ramírez, Nikhil Sarin, Samuel P. R. Shilling, Rhaana L. C. Starling, Gianpiero Tagliaferri, Aishwarya Linesh Thakur, Christina C. Thöne, Klaas Wiersema, Isabelle Worssam, Tayyaba Zafar

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Abstract

The nature of the minute-to-hour-long fast X-ray transients localized by telescopes such as Chandra, Swift and XMM-Newton remains mysterious, with numerous models suggested for the events. Here we report multi-wavelength observations of EP240315a, a 1,600-s-long transient detected by the Einstein Probe, showing it to have a redshift of z = 4.859. We measure a low column density of neutral hydrogen and directly detect leaking ionizing Lyman continuum. The observed properties are consistent with EP240315a being a long-duration gamma-ray burst, and these observations suggest a possible interpretation in which a substantial fraction of the X-ray-transient population are lower-luminosity examples of similar events. If correct, then sensitive narrow-field searches could be a powerful complementary probe to traditional wide-field transient detection in the identification of samples of gamma-ray-burst-like events into the epoch of reionization. Observations of a fast X-ray transient reveal that it is a gamma-ray-burst explosion from a very distant galaxy that emits light with the wavelength necessary to drive cosmic reionization, the last major phase change in the history of the Universe.

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来自z≈5莱曼连续泄漏星系的快速x射线瞬态EP240315A

钱德拉（Chandra）、雨燕（Swift）和xmm -牛顿（XMM-Newton）等望远镜观测到的一分钟到一小时的快速x射线瞬变现象的性质仍然很神秘，人们对这些事件提出了许多模型。在这里，我们报告了EP240315a的多波长观测，这是一个由爱因斯坦探测器探测到的1600秒长的瞬态，显示它的红移为z = 4.859。我们测量了中性氢的低柱密度和直接检测泄漏电离莱曼连续体。观测到的性质与EP240315a是一个长时间的伽马射线暴一致，这些观测结果提出了一种可能的解释，即相当一部分x射线瞬变种群是类似事件的低光度例子。如果正确的话，灵敏的窄场搜索可以作为传统宽场瞬态探测的有力补充，用于识别进入再电离时代的伽马射线暴样事件样本。

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来源期刊

Nature Astronomy Physics and Astronomy-Astronomy and Astrophysics

CiteScore

19.50

自引率

2.80%

发文量

252

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