Detection of a very bright optical flare from a gamma-ray burst at redshift 6.29

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  • 13 October 2005
Abstract
The event of September 4th, 2005 (GRB 050904) was detected by the SWIFT/BAT experiment. The source was found to be at a redshift z = 6.29, corresponding to an age of the Universe which is only 7% of the present epoch. The 25 cm TAROT robotic telescope3 was able to catch the bright flare emitted by GRB 050904 at the time of the prompt high-energy event. In this letter we discuss the flux and the behaviour of the optical emission during the prompt high-energy emission and the early afterglow. We combine our data with simultaneous observations performed in X-rays and we analyze the broad-band spectrum. We show that the optical emission is too bright to have the same origin as the high energy photons. Both the temporal and spectral behaviour of the event are difficult to explain within the current internal or reverse shock models. These observations lead us to emphasize the similarity of GRB 050904 with GRB 990123, a remarkable gamma-ray burst whose optical emission reached 9th magnitude4. While GRB 990123 was, until now, considered as a unique event, our observations suggest the existence of a population of GRBs which have very large isotropic equivalent energies and extremely bright optical counterparts. The luminosity of these GRBs is such that they are easily detectable through the entire universe. Since we can detect them to very high redshift even with small aperture telescopes like TAROT, they will constitute powerful tools for the exploration of the high-redshift Universe and might be used to probe the first generation of stars.

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