Uncovering the Population of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts at z > 1.5

Short-duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) are highly energetic, relativistic explosions with durations T90 < 2 s. Much work has been done to investigate the origin of these bursts. However, until a few years ago, there was only indirect evidence linking them to the mergers of binary neutron stars (BNS) or neutron star–black hole (NSBH) mergers (e.g., the lack of associated supernovae, host galaxy demographics, explosion environments, offsets from their host galaxies, and excess emission consistent with r-process kilonovae; see [1], [2], [3], and [4] for examples).