GRB 100219A with X-shooter - abundances in a galaxy at z =4.7

Abundances of galaxies at redshifts z > 4 are difficult to obtain from damped Lyα (DLA) systems in the sightlines of quasars (QSOs) due to the Lyα forest blanketing and the low number of high-redshift QSOs known to date. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with their higher luminosity are well suited to study galaxies out to the formation of the first stars at z > 10. The large wavelength coverage of the X-shooter spectrograph makes it an excellent tool to study the interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies, in particular if the redshift is not known beforehand. In this paper, we determine the properties of a GRB host at z = 4.667 23 from absorption lines combined with X-ray and optical imaging data. This is one of the highest redshifts where a detailed analysis with medium-resolution data is possible. We measure a relatively high metallicity of [S/H] = −1.1 ± 0.2 for a galaxy at this redshift. Assuming ultraviolet pumping as origin for the fine-structure lines, the material observed is between 0.3 and 1.0 kpc from the GRB. The extinction determined by the spectral slope from X-rays to the infrared shows a moderate value of AV = 0.13 ± 0.05 mag and relative abundances point to a warm disc extinction pattern. Low- and high-ionization as well as fine-structure lines show a complicated kinematic structure probably pointing to a merger in progress. We also detect one intervening system at z = 2.18. GRB-DLAs have a shallower evolution of metallicity with redshift than QSO absorbers and no evolution in their H i column density or ionization fraction. GRB hosts at high redshifts seem to continue the trend of the metallicity-luminosity relation towards lower metallicities but the sample is still too small to draw a definite conclusion. While the detection of GRBs at z > 4 with current satellites is still difficult, they are very important for our understanding of the early epochs of star and galaxy formation.