Abstract

We analyse the spatial distribution within host galaxies and chemical properties of the progenitors of long gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) as a function of redshift. By using hydrodynamical cosmological simulations, which include star formation, supernova feedback and chemical enrichment, and based on the hypothesis of the collapsar model with low metallicity, we investigate the progenitors in the range 0 < z < 3. Our results suggest that the sites of these phenomena tend to be located in the central regions of the hosts at high redshifts but move outwards for lower ones. We find that scenarios with low metallicity cut-offs best fit current observations. For these scenarios, LGRBs tend to be [Fe/H]-poor and show a strong alpha-enhancement evolution towards lower values as redshift decreases. The variation of typical burst sites with redshift would imply that they might be tracing different parts of galaxies at different redshifts.