Afterglow light curve of GRB 090926A

The spectrum shows prominent Lyman-{alpha} absorption with N_HI_=10^21.73+/-0.07^cm^-2^ and a multitude of metal lines at a common redshift of z=2.1062+/-0.0004, which we associate with the redshift of the gamma-ray burst (GRB). The metallicity derived from SII is log(Z/Z_{sun}_)~-1.9, one of the lowest values ever found in a GRB Damped Lyman-{alpha} (DLA) system.

This confirms that the spread of metallicity in GRB-DLAs at z~2 is at least two orders of magnitude. We argue that this spread in metallicity does not require a similar range in abundances of the GRB progenitors, since the neutral interstellar medium probed by the DLA is expected to be at a significant distance from the explosion site. The hydrogen column density derived from the Swift/XRT afterglow spectrum (assuming log(Z/Z_{sun}_)~-1.9) is ~100 times higher than the N_HI_ obtained from the Lyman-{alpha} absorptions.