Description
The ultraviolet (UV) extinction feature at 2175{AA} is ubiquitously observed in the Galaxy but is rarely detected at high redshifts. Here we report the spectroscopic detection of the 2175{AA} bump on the sightline to the {gamma}-ray burst (GRB) afterglow GRB180325A at z=2.2486, the only unambiguous detection over the past 10 years of GRB follow-up, at four different epochs with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT)/X-shooter. Additional photometric observations of the afterglow are obtained with the Gamma-Ray burst Optical and Near-Infrared Detector (GROND). We construct the near-infrared to X-ray spectral energy distributions (SEDs) at four spectroscopic epochs. The SEDs are well described by a single power law and an extinction law with RV~4.4, Av~1.5, and the 2175{AA} extinction feature. The bump strength and extinction curve are shallower than the average Galactic extinction curve. We determine a metallicity of [Zn/H]{>}-0.98 from the VLT/X-shooter spectrum. We detect strong neutral carbon associated with the GRB with equivalent width of Wr({lambda}1656)=0.85+/-0.05. We also detect optical emission lines from the host galaxy. Based on the H{alpha} emission-line flux, the derived dust-corrected star formation rate is ~46+/-4M_{sun}_/yr and the predicted stellar mass is log M*/M_{sun}_~9.3+/-0.4, suggesting that the host galaxy is among the main-sequence star-forming galaxies.
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