Gamma-Ray Bursts: New Rulers to Measure the Universe

By G. Ghirlanda, G. Ghisellini, D. Lazzati, C. Firmani. 2004

187 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The best measure of the universe should be done using a standard "ruler" at any redshift. Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) probe the universe up to z ~ 1.5, while the cosmic microwave background (CMB) primary anisotropies concern basically z ~ 1000. Apparently, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are all but standard candles. However, their emission is collimated, and the collimation-corrected energy correlates tightly with the frequency at which most of the radiation of the prompt is emitted, as found by Ghirlanda et al. Through this correlation we can infer the burst energy accurately enough to probe the intermediate-redshift (z < 10) universe. Using the best known 15 GRBs we find very encouraging results that emphasize the cosmological GRB role. A combined fit with SN Ia yields ΩM = 0.37 ± 0.10 and ΩΛ = 0.87 ± 0.23. Assuming in addition a flat universe, the parameters are constrained to be ΩM = 0.29 ± 0.04 and ΩΛ = 0.71 ± 0.05. GRBs accomplish the role of "missing link" between SN Ia and CMB primary anisotropies. They can provide a new insight on the cosmic effects of dark energy, complementary to the one supplied by CMB secondary anisotropies through the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. The unexpected standard candle cosmological role of GRBs motivates us with the most optimistic hopes for what can be obtained when the GRB-dedicated satellite, Swift, is launched.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8cf0365dcffa66b55b937470cf13dbea50519e86

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The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. Pawan Kumar
3. E. Liang
4. L. Amati
5. Binbin Zhang
6. D. Burrows
7. J. Racusin
8. G. Ghirlanda

In Instrumentation

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Liang
3. L. Amati
4. Pawan Kumar
5. Binbin Zhang
6. G. Ghirlanda
7. D. Burrows
8. G. Ghisellini

Citations in the corpus

• The Collimation-corrected Gamma-Ray Burst Energies Correlate with the Peak Energy of Their νFν Spectrum (2004, methodology): “E correlation might be used to reduce the scatter of the GRB-Hubble diagram (Bloom et al. 2003; Schaefer 2003) and constrain the cosmological parameters (Ghirlanda et al. 2004).”
• Four new observational H(z) data from luminous red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data release seven (2012, background): “…(BAO) peaks (Eisenstein et al., 2005; Percival et al., 2010), measurements of ‘standard candles’ such as the redshift-distance relationship of type Ia supernovae (SNIa) (SNIa; Riess et al., 1998; Hicken et al., 2009) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) (GRBs; Ghirlanda et al., 2004; Li et al., 2008) .”
• A complete sample of bright Swift long gamma-ray bursts: testing the spectral-energy correlations (2011, background): “…strongly correlates with (i) the isotropic energyEiso (Amati relation, Amati et al. 2002), (ii) the isotropic peak luminosity Liso (Yonetoku relation, Yonetoku et al. 2004) and (iii) the collimation– corrected energyEγ (Ghirlanda relation, Ghirlanda et al. 2004b; see also Liang & Zhang 2005).”
• The Ep,i–Eiso correlation in gamma-ray bursts: updated observational status, re-analysis and main implications (2006, methodology): “In addition, the Ep,i – Eγ and Ep,i – Eiso – tb correlations, given their low dispersion, have been used for the estimate of cosmological parameters, e.g., Ghirlanda et al. (2004); Dai, Liang & Xu (2004); Liang & Zhang (2005); Xu, Dai & Liang (2005), in a way similar to that used with type Ia SNe .”
• A Comprehensive Analysis of Swift XRT Data. III. Jet Break Candidates in X-Ray and Optical Afterglow Light Curves (2007, methodology): “This correlation was taken as a potential standard candle to perform cosmographic studies (e.g., Dai et al. 2004; Ghirlanda et al. 2004a).”
• Model-independent Multivariable Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Indicator and Its Possible Cosmological Implications (2005, methodology): “Ghirlanda et al. (2004a) found a tighter correlation between GRB jet energy and E ′ p, which reads Ejet ∝ (E ′ p) 3/2, where Ejet = Eγ,iso(1−cos θjet), and θjet is the jet opening angle inferred from the “jet” break time imprinted in the light curves (usually in the optical band, and in some cases…”
• A Cosmology-Independent Calibration of Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Relations and the Hubble Diagram (2008, methodology): “…made use of these GRB luminosity indicators as standard candles at very high redshift for cosmology research (e.g. Schaefer 2003b; Dai et al. 2004; Ghirlanda et al. 2004b; Firmani et al. 2005, 2006, 2007; Liang & Zhang 2005; Xu et al. 2005; Wang & Dai 2006; see also e.g. Ghirlanda et al. 2006a…”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2007, methodology): “Starting with the assumption of constant energy reservoir of all events (as derived by Frail et al. 2001; Bloom et al. 2003 - but not confirmed by more systematic observations by Swift, e.g., Willingale et al. 2006; Burrows 2006; Zhang 2007), they drew the conclusion that GRBs have a typical opening”
• The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, methodology): “…− Eγ (Ghirlanda) relation Assuming that the afterglow temporal breaks discovered in the pre-Swift era are jet breaks (Rhoads, 1999; Sari et al., 1999), Ghirlanda et al. (2004a) found a correlation between Ep,z and the geometrically-corrected gamma-ray energy Eγ = Eγ,iso 4π ∫ θj 0 2× 2π sin θdθ =…”