Spectral analysis of Fermi-LAT gamma-ray bursts with known redshift and their potential use as cosmological standard candles

TL;DR

This study analyzes 26 Fermi-LAT gamma-ray bursts with known redshift to test their potential as standard candles for cosmology, extending the Hubble diagram and constraining cosmological parameters.

Contribution

It provides the first spectral analysis of Fermi-LAT GRBs for the Amati relation and demonstrates their use in cosmological parameter estimation beyond previous limits.

Findings

The Amati relation holds for 25 out of 26 GRBs.

Fermi-LAT GRBs extend the Hubble diagram to redshift 4.35.

Results are consistent with current cosmological models.

Abstract

Long duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (LGRBs) may serve as standard candles to constrain cosmological parameters by probing the Hubble diagram well beyond the range of redshift currently accessible using type-Ia supernovae. The standardization of GRBs is based on phenomenological relations between two or more parameters found from spectral modeling, of which one is strongly dependent on the cosmological model. The Amati relation links the source-frame energy ${E_{\mathrm{i,p}}}$ at which the prompt gamma-ray spectral energy distribution $\nu F_\nu$ peaks, and the isotropic-equivalent bolometric energy ${E_{\mathrm{iso}}}$ emitted during the prompt phase. We performed spectral analysis of 26 GRBs with known redshift that have been detected by the Fermi-Large Area Telescope (LAT) during its nine years of operations from July 2008 to September 2017, thus extending the computation of ${E_{\mathrm{iso}}}$ to the 100 MeV range. Multiple components are required to fit the spectra of a number of GRBs. We found that the Amati relation is satisfied by the 25 LGRBs, with best fit parameters similar to previous studies that used data from different satellite experiments, while the only short GRB with known redshift is an outlier. Using the Amati relation we extend the Hubble diagram to redshift 4.35 and constrain the Hubble constant and dark-energy density in the $\Lambda$CDM model, with Fermi-LAT GRBs alone and together with another sample of 94 GRBs and with the latest Supernovae type-Ia data. Our results are consistent with the currently acceptable ranges of those cosmological parameters within errors.