A novel approach to investigate chemical inhomogeneities in GRB host galaxies: the Zabs–Zemiss relation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Models of chemical enrichment and inhomogeneity in high-redshift galaxies are challenging to constrain observationally. In this work, we discuss a novel approach to probe chemical inhomogeneities within long gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies, by comparing the absorption metallicity, Zabs, from the GRB afterglow (which probes the environment along the line of sight) with the emission-line metallicity, Zemiss, measured via slit spectroscopy. Using the IllustrisTNG simulation, the theoretical relationship between these metallicity metrics is explored for a range of GRB formation models, varying the GRB progenitor metallicity threshold. For galaxies with fixed Zemiss, the median value of Zabs depends strongly on the GRB progenitor threshold metallicity, with Zabs significantly lower than Zemiss for high-metallicity hosts. Conversely, at fixed Zabs, the median value of Zemiss depends primarily on the metallicity distribution of galaxies in IllustrisTNG and their chemical inhomogeneities, offering a GRB model-independent way to constrain these processes observationally. Currently, only one host galaxy has data for both absorption and emission metallicities (GRB121014A). We re-analyse the emission spectrum and compare the inferred metallicity Zemiss to a recent Bayesian determination of Zabs, finding $\log (Z_{\rm emiss}/Z_{\odot }) = \log (Z_{\rm abs}/Z_{\odot }) +0.35^{+ 0.14}_{- 0.25}$, within ∼2 standard deviations of predictions from the IllustrisTNG simulation. Future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope will be able to measure Zemiss for four other GRB hosts with known Zabs values, using ∼2-h observations. While small, the sample will provide preliminary constraints on the Zabs–Zemiss relation to test chemical enrichment schemes in cosmological simulations.