Thanks to their enormous energy release, Gamma Rays Bursts (GRBs) have recently attracted a lot of interest to probe the Hubble diagram (HD) deep into the matter dominated era and hence complement Type Ia Supernovae (SNeIa). We consider here three different calibration methods based on the use of a fiducial LCDM model, on cosmographic parameters and on the local regression on SNeIa to calibrate the scaling relations proposed as an equivalent to the Phillips law to standardize GRBs finding any significant dependence. We then investigate the evolution of these parameters with the redshift to obtain any statistical improvement. Under this assumption, we then consider possible systematics effects on the HDs introduced by the calibration method, the averaging procedure and the homogeneity of the sample arguing against any significant bias.
We present the Hubble diagram (HD) of 66 Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) derived using only data from their X - ray afterglow lightcurve. To this end, we use the recently updated L_X - T_a correlation between the break time T_a and the X - ray luminosity L_X measured at T_a calibrated from a sample of Swift GRBs with lightcurves well fitted by the Willingale et al. (2007) model. We then investigate the use of this HD to constrain cosmological parameters when used alone or in combination with other data showing that the use of GRBs leads to constraints in agreement with previous results in literature. We finally argue that a larger sample of high luminosity GRBs can provide a valuable information in the search for the correct cosmological model.
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have recently attracted much attention as a possible way to extend the Hubble diagram to very high redshift. To this aim, the luminosity (or isotropic emitted energy) of a GRB at redshift z must be evaluated from a correlation with a distance independent quantity so that one can then solve for the luminosity distance D_L(z) and hence the distance modulus mu(z). Averaging over five different two parameters correlations and using a fiducial cosmological model to calibrate them, Schaefer (2007) has compiled a sample of 69 GRBs with measured mu(z) which has since then been widely used to constrain cosmological parameters. We update here that sample by many aspects. First, we add a recently found correlation for the X - ray afterglow and use a Bayesian inspired fitting method to calibrate the different GRBs correlations known insofar assuming a fiducial LCDM model in agreement with the recent WMAP5 data. Averaging over six correlations, we end with a new GRBs Hubble diagram comprising 83 objects. We also extensively explore the impact of varying the fiducial cosmological model considering how the estimated mu(z) change as a function of the $(Omega_M, w_0, w_a)$ parameters of the Chevallier - Polarski - Linder phenomenological dark energy equation of state. In order to avoid the need of assuming an {it a priori} cosmological model, we present a new calibration procedure based on a model independent local regression estimate of mu(z) using the Union SNeIa sample to calibrate the GRBs correlations. This finally gives us a GRBs Hubble diagram made out of 69 GRBs whose estimated distance modulus mu(z) is almost independent on the underlying cosmological model.
Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have recently attracted much attention as a possible way to extend the Hubble diagram to very high redshift. However, the large scatter in their intrinsic properties prevents directly using them as distance indicator so that the hunt is open for a relation involving an observable property to standardize GRBs in the same way as the Phillips law makes it possible to use Type Ia Supernovae (SNeIa) as standardizable candles. We use here the data on the X - ray decay curve and spectral index of a sample of GRBs observed with the Swift satellite. These data are used as input to a Bayesian statistical analysis looking for a correlation between the X - ray luminosity L_X(T_a) and the time constant T_a of the afterglow curve. We find a linear relation between log{[L_X(T_a)]} and log{[T_a/(1+z)]} with an intrinsic scatter sigma_{int} = 0.33 comparable to previously reported relations. Remarkably, both the slope and the intrinsic scatter are almost independent on the matter density Omega_M and the constant equation of state w of the dark energy component thus suggesting that the circularity problem is alleviated for the $L_X - T_a$ relation.
