Nature Astronomy

, volume 9 , issue 4 , pages 564-576

Soft X-ray prompt emission from the high-redshift gamma-ray burst EP240315a

Yuan Liu ¹

Hui Sun ¹

D. Xu ^{1, 2}

D. Svinkin ³

J. J. DeLaunay ⁴

N. Tanvir ⁵

He Gao ^{6, 7}

C. Zhang ¹

Yong Chen ⁸

X. F. Wu ⁹

Binbin Zhang ^{10, 11}

W. Yuan ^{1, 12}

J. An ^{1, 12}

Gabriele Bruni ¹³

D. D. Frederiks ³

G. Ghirlanda ^{14, 15}

J. W. Hu ¹

A. Li ^{6, 7}

Cheng-Kui Li ⁸

J.D. LI ^{6, 7}

D. B. Malesani ^{16, 17, 18}

L. Piro ¹³

G. Raman ⁴

R. Ricci ¹⁹

E. Troja ^{19, 20}

Susanna D. Vergani ²¹

Qinyu Wu ^{1, 12}

Jun Yang ^{22, 23}

B. B. Zhang ^{9, 22, 23}

Z. P. Zhu ¹

A. De Ugarte Postigo ^{24, 25}

A. G. Demin ³

D. Dobie ^{26, 27, 28}

Z Fan ¹

S. Y. Fu ^{1, 12}

J. U. Fynbo ^{16, 17}

Jin-Jun Geng ⁹

Giulia Gianfagna ¹³

Y.-D. Hu ¹⁴

Y. F. Huang ²²

S. Q. JIANG ^{1, 12}

Peter G. Jonker ¹⁸

Y. Julakanti ⁵

J. A. Kennea ⁴

A. A. Kokomov ³

E. Kuulkers ²⁹

Wei‐Hua Lei ³⁰

J K Leung ^{31, 32, 33}

A. J. Levan ¹⁸

D. Y. Li ¹

Y. Li ⁹

S. P. Littlefair ³⁴

X. Liu ^{1, 12}

A. L. Lysenko ³

Y.-N. Ma ^{6, 7}

A. Martin-Carrillo ³⁵

P. O’Brien ⁵

Tyler Parsotan ^{36, 37}

J. Quirola-Vásquez ¹⁸

A. V. Ridnaia ³

S. Ronchini ⁴

A. Rossi ³⁸

D. Mata Sánchez ^{39, 40}

Benjamin Schneider ⁴¹

Rong-Feng Shen ⁴²

A. L. Thakur ¹³

A. Tohuvavohu ^{31, 32}

M. A. P. Torres ^{39, 40}

A. E. Tsvetkova ^{3, 38, 43}

M. Ulanov ³

Jun-Jie Wei ⁹

D. Xiao ⁹

Yi Han Yin ^{22, 23}

M. Bai ⁴⁴

Vadim Burwitz ⁴⁵

Z. M. Cai ⁴⁶

F. S. Chen ⁴⁷

H. -L. Chen ⁴⁸

T. X. Chen ⁸

W. Chen ^{1, 12}

Yifan Chen ⁴⁷

Chen Y H ⁴⁶

H. Q. Cheng ¹

B. Cordier ⁴⁹

Chenzhou Cui ^{1, 12}

W. W. Cui ⁸

Y. F. Dai ¹

Z. G. Dai ⁵⁰

J. Eder ⁴⁵

R. A. J. Eyles ⁵

D. W. Fan ¹

C. Feldman ⁵

Hua Feng ⁸

Z Feng ⁴⁴

P. Friedrich ⁴⁵

X. Gao ⁵¹

J.-F. Gonzalez ⁵²

J. Guan ⁸

D. W. Han ⁸

J. Han ¹

Dongjie Hou ⁸

H. B. Hu ¹

T. Hu ⁴⁴

M. H. Huang ^{1, 12}

J. Huo ⁸

I. Hutchinson ⁵

Z. Ji ⁴⁴

S. M. Jia ⁸

Z. Q. Jia ¹

B.-W. Jiang ⁵³

Chichuan Jin ^{1, 12}

G. JIN ⁵³

J. J. Jin ¹

A. Keereman ²⁹

H Lerman ⁵

J. F. Li ⁴⁷

L. H. Li ⁵³

M. S. Li ⁸

W. Li ⁸

Z. D. Li ⁴⁷

T.-Y. Lian ^{1, 12}

E. W. Liang ⁵⁴

Z. X. Ling ^{1, 12}

C. Z. Liu ⁸

H. Y. Liu ¹

H. Q. Liu ⁴⁶

Mingjun Liu ^{1, 12}

Y.-R. Liu ⁴⁴

F. J. Lu ⁸

H. J. Lü ⁵⁴

L.-D. Luo ⁸

F. L. Ma ⁴⁴

J. Ma ⁸

Jirong Mao ⁵⁵

X. Mao ^{1, 12}

M. McHugh ⁵

N. Meidinger ⁴⁵

Kirpal Nandra ⁴⁵

J. P. Osborne ⁵

H. W. Pan ¹

X. Pan ¹

Maria Edvige Ravasio ^{14, 18}

A. Rau ⁴⁵

N. Rea ^{56, 57}

Umer Rehman ^{22, 23, 58}

J. S. Sanders ⁴⁵

A. Santovincenzo ²⁹

Song Lv ⁸

J. Su ⁴⁴

L. J. Sun ⁴⁴

S. L. Sun ⁴⁷

X. J. Sun ⁴⁷

Y.Y. Tan ⁴⁴

Q J Tang ⁴⁸

Y H Tao ¹

J. Z. Tong ⁴⁴

C.Y. Wang ⁵⁹

H. Wang ⁸

J Wang ⁸

L. Wang ⁶⁰

W. X. Wang ¹

Xiaofeng Wang ⁶¹

X. Y. Wang ^{22, 23}

Yilong Wang ^{1, 12}

Y. S. Wang ⁸

Daming Wei ⁹

R. Willingale ⁵

S. L. Xiong ⁴⁴

H. T. Xu ⁴⁴

J. J. Xu ⁸

X. P. XU ^{1, 12}

Y. F. Xu ^{1, 12}

Z. XU ⁵³

C B Xue ⁴⁴

Y. L. Xue ⁴⁷

A. L. Yan ⁴⁷

F. Yang ¹

Haonan Yang ^{1, 12}

X T Yang ⁸

Y.J. Yang ⁸

Y. W. YU ⁶²

Juan Zhang ⁸

M. Zhang ¹

Shaofei Zhang ⁸

W. D. Zhang ¹

W. J. Zhang ¹

Y. H. Zhang ⁴⁶

Z. Zhang ⁵³

Z. L. Zhang ⁸

D. H. Zhao ¹

H. S. Zhao ⁸

X. F. Zhao ⁸

Z. J. Zhao ⁸

L. X. ZHOU ¹

Y. L. Zhou ⁴⁶

Y. X. Zhu ⁸

Z.C. Zhu ⁴⁶

Xiaoxiong Zuo ^{1, 12}

Hide authors affiliations Show authors affiliations: 62 affiliations

National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |

Altay Astronomical Observatory, Altay, China |

Ioffe institute, St. Petersburg, Russia |

⁴

Department Of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA |

⁵

School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK |

⁶

Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China |

⁷

Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China |

⁸

Key Laboratory of Particle Astrophysics, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |

⁹

Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China |

¹⁰

Nevada Center for Astrophysics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA |

¹¹

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA |

¹²

School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |

¹³

INAF—Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, Rome, Italy |

¹⁴

INAF—Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Merate, Italy

National Institute for Astrophysics

Brera Astronomical Observatory

¹⁵

INFN—Sezione di Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

University of Milano-Bicocca

National Institute for Nuclear Physics

¹⁶

Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Copenhagen, Denmark |

¹⁷

Niels Bohr institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark |

¹⁸

Department of Astrophysics/IMAPP, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands |

¹⁹

Department of Physics, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy |

²⁰

INAF, Rome, Italy |

²¹

GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Meudon, France

Observatoire de Paris

Paris Sciences et Lettres

²²

School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China |

²³

Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing, China |

²⁴

Artemis, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Université de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, France |

²⁵

LAM, Aix Marseille University, CNRS, Marseille, France |

²⁶

ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Hawthorn, Australia |

²⁷

Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia |

²⁸

Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia |

²⁹

ESTEC, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, The Netherlands |

³⁰

Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China |

³¹

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada |

³²

Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada |

³³

Racah Institute of Physics, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel |

³⁴

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK |

³⁵

School of Physics and Centre for Space Research, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland |

³⁶

Center for Space Science and Technology, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, USA |

³⁷

Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, USA |

³⁸

INAF—Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio, Bologna, Italy |

³⁹

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, iac, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain |

⁴⁰

Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain |

⁴¹

Kavli Institute For Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA |

⁴²

School of Physics and Astronomy, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, China |

⁴³

Department of Physics, University of Cagliari, Monserrato, Italy |

⁴⁴

National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |

⁴⁵

Max-Planck-Institut Für Extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany |

⁴⁶

Innovation Academy for Microsatellites, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China |

⁴⁷

Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China |

⁴⁸

Key Laboratory of Technology On Space Energy Conversion, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS, Beijing, China |

⁴⁹

IRFU/Département d’Astrophysique-AIM, CEA Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France |

⁵⁰

Department of Astronomy, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China |

⁵¹

XinJiang Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, China |

⁵²

Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon UMR5574, Université de Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, CNRS, Saint-Genis-Laval, France |

⁵³

North Night Vision Technology Co. Ltd, Nanjing, China |

⁵⁴

Guangxi Key Laboratory for Relativistic Astrophysics, School of Physical Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, China |

⁵⁵

Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China |

⁵⁶

Institute of Space Sciences (ICE), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain |

⁵⁷

Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Barcelona, Spain |

⁵⁸

Department of Physics, Air University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan |

⁵⁹

Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |

⁶⁰

Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China |

⁶¹

Physics Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China |

⁶²

Institute of Astrophysics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2025-01-23

Springer Nature

Nature Astronomy

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR: 4.006

CiteScore: 22.9

Impact factor: 14.3

ISSN: 23973366

DOI: 10.1038/s41550-024-02449-8

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Abstract

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. The death of massive stars has traditionally been discovered by explosive events in the gamma-ray band. Liu et al. show that the sensitive wide-field monitor on board Einstein Probe can reveal a weak soft-X-ray signal much earlier than gamma rays.

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Liu Y. et al. Soft X-ray prompt emission from the high-redshift gamma-ray burst EP240315a // Nature Astronomy. 2025. Vol. 9. No. 4. pp. 564-576.

GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy

Liu Y. et al. Soft X-ray prompt emission from the high-redshift gamma-ray burst EP240315a // Nature Astronomy. 2025. Vol. 9. No. 4. pp. 564-576.

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BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy

@article{2025_Liu,

author = {Yuan Liu and Hui Sun and D. Xu and D. Svinkin and J. J. DeLaunay and N. Tanvir and He Gao and C. Zhang and Yong Chen and X. F. Wu and Binbin Zhang and W. Yuan and J. An and Gabriele Bruni and D. D. Frederiks and G. Ghirlanda and J. W. Hu and A. Li and Cheng-Kui Li and J.D. LI and D. B. Malesani and L. Piro and G. Raman and R. Ricci and E. Troja and Susanna D. Vergani and Qinyu Wu and Jun Yang and B. B. Zhang and Z. P. Zhu and A. De Ugarte Postigo and A. G. Demin and D. Dobie and Z Fan and S. Y. Fu and J. U. Fynbo and Jin-Jun Geng and Giulia Gianfagna and Y.-D. Hu and Y. F. Huang and S. Q. JIANG and Peter G. Jonker and Y. Julakanti and J. A. Kennea and A. A. Kokomov and E. Kuulkers and Wei‐Hua Lei and J K Leung and A. J. Levan and D. Y. Li and others},

title = {Soft X-ray prompt emission from the high-redshift gamma-ray burst EP240315a},

journal = {Nature Astronomy},

year = {2025},

volume = {9},

publisher = {Springer Nature},

month = {jan},

url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02449-8},

number = {4},

pages = {564--576},

doi = {10.1038/s41550-024-02449-8}

}

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MLA Copy

Liu, Yuan, et al. “Soft X-ray prompt emission from the high-redshift gamma-ray burst EP240315a.” Nature Astronomy, vol. 9, no. 4, Jan. 2025, pp. 564-576. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02449-8.

Publisher

Springer Nature

Journal

Nature Astronomy

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR

4.006

CiteScore

22.9

Impact factor

14.3

ISSN

23973366 (Electronic)

Profiles

J J DeLaunay