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

Bibcode
2025NatAs...9.1375L
DOI
10.1038/s41550-025-02612-9
Levan, Andrew J.; Jonker, Peter G.; Saccardi, Andrea; Malesani, Daniele Bjørn; Tanvir, Nial R.; Izzo, Luca; Heintz, Kasper E.; Mata Sánchez, Daniel; Quirola-Vásquez, Jonathan; Torres, Manuel A. P.; Vergani, Susanna D.; Schulze, Steve; Rossi, Andrea; D'Avanzo, Paolo; Gompertz, Benjamin P.; Martin-Carrillo, Antonio; de Ugarte Postigo, Antonio; Schneider, Benjamin; Yuan, Weimin; Ling, Zhixing; Zhang, Wenjie; Mao, Xuan; Liu, Yuan; Sun, Hui; Xu, Dong; Zhu, Zipei; Agüí Fernández, José Feliciano; Amati, Lorenzo; Bauer, Franz E.; Campana, Sergio; Carotenuto, Francesco; Chrimes, Ashley; van Dalen, Joyce N. D.; D'Elia, Valerio; Della Valle, Massimo; De Pasquale, Massimiliano; Dhillon, Vikram S.; Galbany, Lluís; Gaspari, Nicola; Gianfagna, Giulia; Gomboc, Andreja; Habeeb, Nusrin; Hartmann, Dieter; van Hoof, Agnes P. C.; Hu, Youdong; Jakobsson, Pall; Julakanti, Yashaswi; Korth, Judith; Kouveliotou, Chryssa; Laskar, Tanmoy; Littlefair, Stuart P.; Maiorano, Elisabetta; Mao, Jirong; Melandri, Andrea; Miller, M. Coleman; Mukherjee, Tamal; Oates, Samantha R.; O'Brien, Paul; Palmerio, Jesse T.; Parviainen, Hannu; Pieterse, Daniëlle L. A.; Piranomonte, Silvia; Piro, Luigi; Pugliese, Giovanna; Ravasio, Maria E.; Rayson, Ben; Salvaterra, Ruben; Sánchez-Ramírez, Rubén; Sarin, Nikhil; Shilling, Samuel P. R.; Starling, Rhaana L. C.; Tagliaferri, Gianpiero; Thakur, Aishwarya Linesh; Thöne, Christina C.; Wiersema, Klaas; Worssam, Isabelle; Zafar, Tayyaba
Bibliographical reference

Nature Astronomy

Advertised on:
9
2025
Number of authors
77
IAC number of authors
4
Citations
3
Refereed citations
2
Description
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.
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Exoplanets and Astrobiology
The search for life in the universe has been driven by recent discoveries of planets around other stars (known as exoplanets), becoming one of the most active fields in modern astrophysics. The growing number of new exoplanets discovered in recent years and the recent advance on the study of their atmospheres are not only providing new valuable
Enric
Pallé Bago
In progress
Type
Refereed
Exoplanetary Systems & Solar System (SEYSS)

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