Special Session SS14  23 June 2025

Gamma-Ray Bursts and Fast X-ray Transients in the SVOM and Einstein Probe Era

Aims and scope

The Einstein Probe and SVOM missions were successfully launched in January and June 2024, respectively. Both missions stem from collaborations of European countries and Agencies with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and aim at opening new windows on gamma-ray burst (GRB) science and more generally on time-domain astrophysics, in synergy with multi-messenger astronomy. Einstein Probe carries a set of wide field focusing X-ray telescopes operating in the 0.5-5 keV energy range, and two powerful follow-up telescopes operating in the 0.2-10 keV range. SVOM carries a multi-wavelength payload covering the optical, X-ray and gamma-ray bands, and includes dedicated ground-based follow-up robotic telescopes.

Thanks to a combination of a large field of view and low energy threshold (0.5 and 4 keV, respectively), both Einstein Probe and SVOM have begun to discover previously undetected populations of extragalactic transients emitting most of their energy below the classical gamma-ray band as for GRBs. These events are likely to originate from diverse populations, including GRBs at the highest redshifts (z = 6-10), as well as low-luminosity, low-redshift, intrinsically softer events (possibly including jets not pointing directly to Earth), and bursts of unusually long duration (>1000 s). These events are key to explore the relation between the stellar progenitor explosion and the launch of the emitting jets. In addition, other unidentified fast X-ray transients (FXTs) are routinely discovered by the two missions, and their nature, potentially related to different progenitors, deserves further investigation by the scientific community. The highly redshifted GRBs and FXTs are key probes of the early Universe, since their bright afterglows allow to unveil the chemical properties of gas and dust in high-redshift galaxies via absorption spectroscopy. This is not only a unique tool complementary to emission probes accessible, e.g., by JWST, but also offers the key to study the cosmic evolution of gas, metals and dust with cosmic time, as well as measuring the chemical signatures of the first population of stars that exploded.

Programme

  • SVOM and Einstein Probe Results on Gamma-Ray Bursts
  • Emerging new populations of Gamma-Ray Bursts
  • Fast X-ray Transients
  • High redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts
  • Future missions

Invited speakers

  • L. Christensen (NBI, Denmark)
  • B. Cordier (TBC) (CEA, France)
  • J. Rastinejad (NWU, USA)
  • A. Saccardi (CEA, France)
  • N. Sarin (Nordita, Sweden)
  • G. Stratta (INAF, Italy)
  • H. Sun (NAOC, China)

    • Scientific organisers

    D. Götz (France, chair), S. Basa (France), M.G. Bernardini (Italy), A. De Cia (Germany), M. De Pasquale (Italy), O. Godet (France), P. Jonker (The Netherlands), E. Kuulkers (The Netherlands), A. Martin-Carrillo (Ireland), D.B. Malesani (Denmark), P.T. O'Brien (UK), J.T. Palmerio (France), G. Pugliese (The Netherlands), M.E. Ravasio (The Netherlands), N. Rea (Spain), R. Starling (UK), S.D. Vergani (France), J. Wei (China), X. Wu (China), W. Yuan (China), B. Zhang (USA)

    Contact

    diego.gotz @ cea.fr

    Updated on Mon Mar 03 10:13:02 CET 2025
European Astronomical Society