The host galaxy of the short GRB111117A at $z = 2.211$: impact on the short GRB redshift distribution and progenitor channels

Understand

It is notoriously difficult to localize short $\gamma$-ray bursts (sGRBs) and their hosts to measure their redshifts.

• These measurements, however, are critical to constrain the nature of sGRB progenitors, their redshift distribution and the $r$-process element enrichment history of the universe.
• Here, we present spectroscopy of the host galaxy of GRB111117A and measure its redshift to be $z = 2.211$.
• This makes GRB111117A the most distant high-confidence short duration GRB detected to date.