The Host Galaxies of Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts as High-Redshift Cosmological Probes

The student will use large multi-wavelength data sets (optical, NIR, mid-IR, millimeter, radio) on a sample of gamma-ray bursts galaxies spanning z=0 to z=6 to characterize cosmic evolution and better understand the origins of gamma-ray bursts. Over the first 1-2 years the student will build spectral energy distributions using these data and fit them to theoretical models to study how the population evolves with time and examine their connection to other classes of galaxies selected in deep surveys. He will also compare host properties to afterglow-inferred properties (e.g. inferred metallicity) to study correlations between sightline properties with integrated host properties. Finally, he will employ HST data from a recently-approved Cycle 26 program to constrain the faint-end galaxy luminosity function slope at z=5 and independently test whether faint galaxies were sufficient to reionize the early universe.