Bibcode
Liu, Y.; Sun, H.; Xu, D.; Svinkin, D. S.; Delaunay, J.; Tanvir, N. R.; Gao, H.; Zhang, C.; Chen, Y.; Wu, X. -F.; Zhang, B.; Yuan, W.; An, J.; Bruni, G.; Frederiks, D. D.; Ghirlanda, G.; Hu, J. -W.; Li, A.; Li, C. -K.; Li, J. -D.; Malesani, D. B.; Piro, L.; Raman, G.; Ricci, R.; Troja, E.; Vergani, S. D.; Wu, Q. -Y.; Yang, J.; Zhang, B. -B.; Zhu, Z. -P.; de Ugarte Postigo, A.; Demin, A. G.; Dobie, D.; Fan, Z.; Fu, S. -Y.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Geng, J. -J.; Gianfagna, G.; Hu, Y. -D.; Huang, Y. -F.; Jiang, S. -Q.; Jonker, P. G.; Julakanti, Y.; Kennea, J. A.; Kokomov, A. A.; Kuulkers, E.; Lei, W. -H.; Leung, J. K.; Levan, A. J.; Li, D. -Y.; Li, Y.; Littlefair, S. P.; Liu, X.; Lysenko, A. L.; Ma, Y. -N.; Martin-Carrillo, A.; O'Brien, P.; Parsotan, T.; Quirola-Vásquez, J.; Ridnaia, A. V.; Ronchini, S.; Rossi, A.; Mata-Sánchez, D.; Schneider, B.; Shen, R. -F.; Thakur, A. L.; Tohuvavohu, A.; Torres, M. A. P.; Tsvetkova, A. E.; Ulanov, M. V.; Wei, J. -J.; Xiao, D.; Yin, Y. -H. I.; Bai, M.; Burwitz, V.; Cai, Z. -M.; Chen, F. -S.; Chen, H. -L.; Chen, T. -X.; Chen, W.; Chen, Y. -F.; Chen, Y. -H.; Cheng, H. -Q.; Cordier, B.; Cui, C. -Z.; Cui, W. -W.; Dai, Y. -F.; Dai, Z. -G.; Eder, J.; Eyles-Ferris, R. A. J.; Fan, D. -W.; Feldman, C.; Feng, H.; Feng, Z.; Friedrich, P.; Gao, X.; Gonzalez, J. -F.; Guan, J.; Han, D. -W.; Han, J. et al.
Bibliographical reference
Nature Astronomy
Advertised on:
4
2025
Citations
60
Refereed citations
51
Description
Long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are believed to originate from core collapse of massive stars. High-redshift GRBs can probe the star formation and reionization history of the early Universe, but their detection remains rare. Here we report the detection of a GRB triggered in the 0.5-4 keV band by the Wide-field X-ray Telescope (WXT) on board the Einstein Probe (EP) mission, designated as EP240315a, whose bright peak was also detected by the Swift Burst Alert Telescope and Konus-Wind through off-line analyses. At a redshift of z = 4.859, EP240315a showed a much longer and more complicated light curve in the soft-X-ray band than in gamma rays. Benefiting from a large field of view (~3,600°2) and a high sensitivity, EP-WXT captured the earlier engine activation and extended late engine activity through a continuous detection. With a peak X-ray flux at the faint end of previously known high-z GRBs, the detection of EP240315a demonstrates the great potential for EP to study the early universe via GRBs.
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