GRB afterglows: Dust extinction properties from the low to high redshift universe

Long-duration Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are excellent probes to study dust extinction due to their occurrence in star-forming regions and having simple synchrotron emission spectra. Inclusion of spectroscopic data to the GRB X-ray to the infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) could better define the continuum and confirm extinction feature. A preliminary SED analysis of GRB afterglows targeted with the VLT/X-Shooter spectrograph finds that all the 60% of extinguished bursts fit-well with featureless extinction curves. The longer wavelength coverage from ultraviolet to the near-infrared of X-Shooter helps to derive individual extinction curves and determine the total-to-selective extinction, RV precisely, suggesting extinction curves steeper (with a mean of RV = 2.66 ± 0.10 ) than the Small Magellanic Cloud. Moreover, addition of more data to the study of dust-to-metals ratios in GRB afterglows, quasar absorbers, and multiply lensed galaxies still shows the dust-to-metals ratios close to the Galactic value (with a mean value of log −21.2 cm¯² mag¯¹), hinting short time delay between metals and dust formation. Such studies demonstrate the strength of using GRB afterglows to study dust origin and its properties the from low to high redshift Universe.