Intrinsic scatter of the luminosity relation, redshift distribution of the standard candles, and the constraining capability

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the intrinsic scatter and redshift distribution of standard candles affect their ability to constrain cosmological parameters, highlighting the importance of diverse redshift coverage for breaking degeneracies.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the dependence of cosmological constraints on the properties of standard candles, emphasizing the role of redshift distribution and intrinsic scatter.

Findings

Wide redshift distribution of standard candles improves constraints.

Gamma-ray bursts can be as effective as supernovae if redshifts are diverse.

Tighter luminosity relations are needed for dark energy constraints at high redshift.

Abstract

Standard candles are one of the most important tools to study the universe. In this paper, the constraints of standards candles on the cosmological parameters are estimated for different cases. The dependence of the constraints on the intrinsic scatter of the luminosity relation and the redshift distribution of the standard candles is specifically investigated. The results, especially for the constraints on the components of the universe, clearly show that constraints from standard candles at different redshifts have different degeneracy orientations, thus standard candles with a wide redshift distribution can self break the degeneracy and improve the constraints significantly. As a result of this, even with the current level of tightness of known luminosity relations, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can give comparable tightness of constraint with type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) on the components of the universe as long as the redshifts of the GRBs are diversifying enough. However, for a substantial constraint on the dark energy EOS, tighter luminosity relations for GRBs are needed, since the constraints on the dark energy from standard candles at high redshifts are very weak and are thus less helpful in the degeneracy breaking.