The $Lambda$CDM model successfully explains the majority of cosmological observations. However, the $ Lambda$CDM model is challenged by Hubble tension, a remarkable difference of Hubble constant $H_0$ between measurements from local probe and the pre
diction from Planck cosmic microwave background observations under $ Lambda$CDM model. So one urgently needs new distance indicators to test the Hubble tension. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration pulses occurring at cosmological distances, which are attractive cosmological probes. However, there is a thorny problem that the dispersion measures (DMs) contributed by host galaxy and the inhomogeneities of intergalactic medium cannot be exactly determined from observations. Previous works assuming fixed values for them bring uncontrolled systematic error in analysis. A reasonable approach is to handle them as probability distributions extracted from cosmological simulations. Here we report a measurement of ${H_0} = 64.67^{+5.62}_{-4.66} {rm km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}}$ using fourteen localized FRBs, with an uncertainty of 8.7% at 68.3 per cent confidence. Thanks to the high event rate of FRBs and localization capability of radio telescopes (i.e., Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and Very Large Array), future observations of a reasonably sized sample ($sim$100 localized FRBs) will provide a new way of measuring $ H_0$ with a high precision ($sim$2.6%) to test the Hubble tension.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most luminous explosions and can be detectable out to the edge of Universe. It has long been thought they can extend the Hubble diagram to very high redshifts. Several correlations between temporal or spectral properti
es and GRB luminosities have been proposed to make GRBs cosmological tools. However, those correlations cannot be properly standardized. In this paper, we select a long GRB sample with X-ray plateau phases produced by electromagnetic dipole emissions from central new-born magnetars. A tight correlation is found between the plateau luminosity and the end time of the plateau in X-ray afterglows out to the redshift $z=5.91$. We standardize these long GRBs X-ray light curves to a universal behavior by this correlation for the first time, with a luminosity dispersion of 0.5 dex. The derived distance-redshift relation of GRBs is in agreement with the standard $Lambda$CDM model both at low and high redshifts. The evidence of accelerating universe from this GRB sample is $3sigma$, which is the highest statistical significance from GRBs to date.
Magnetars are highly magnetized neutron stars that are characterized by recurrent emission of short-duration bursts in soft gamma-rays/hard X-rays. Recently, FRB 200428 were found to be associated with an X-ray burst from a Galactic magnetar. Two fas
t radio bursts (FRBs) show mysterious periodic activity. However, whether magnetar X-ray bursts are periodic phenomena is unclear. In this paper, we investigate the period of SGR 1806-20 activity. More than 3000 short bursts observed by different telescopes are collected, including the observation of RXTE, HETE-2, ICE and Konus. We consider the observation windows and divide the data into two sub-samples to alleviate the effect of unevenly sample. The epoch folding and Lomb-Scargle methods are used to derive the period of short bursts. We find a possible period about $ 398.20 pm 25.45 $ days. While other peaks exist in the periodograms. If the period is real, the connection between short bursts of magnetars and FRBs should be extensively investigated.
In this paper, we investigate the cosmic anisotropy from the SN-Q sample, consisting of the Pantheon sample and quasars, by employing the hemisphere comparison (HC) method and the dipole fitting (DF) method. Compared to the Pantheon sample, the new s
ample has a larger redshift range, a more homogeneous distribution, and a larger sample size. For the HC method, we find that the maximum anisotropy level is $AL_{max}=0.142pm0.026$ in the direction ($l$, $b$) = $({316.08^{circ}}^{+27.41}_{-129.48}$, ${4.53^{circ}}^{+26.29}_{-64.06})$. The magnitude of anisotropy is $A$ = ($-$8.46 $^{+4.34}_{-5.51}$)$times$$10^{-4}$ and the corresponding preferred direction points toward $(l$, $b)$ = ($29.31^{circ}$$^{+30.59}_{-30.54}$, $71.40^{circ}$$^{+9.79}_{-9.72}$) for the quasar sample from the DF method. The combined SN and quasar sample is consistent with the isotropy hypothesis. The distribution of the dataset might impact the preferred direction from the dipole results. The result is weakly dependent on the redshift from the redshift tomography analysis. There is no evidence of cosmic anisotropy in the SN-Q sample. Though some results obtained from the quasar sample are not consistent with the standard cosmological model, we still do not find any distinct evidence of cosmic anisotropy in the SN-Q sample.
In this paper, we present statistics of soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts from SGR J1550-5418, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 by adding new bursts from K{i}rm{i}z{i}bayrak et al. (2017) detected with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). We find that t
he fluence distributions of magnetar bursts are well described by power-law functions with indices 1.84, 1.68, and 1.65 for SGR J1550-5418, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, respectively. The duration distributions of magnetar bursts also show power-law forms. Meanwhile, the waiting time distribution can be described by a non-stationary Poisson process with an exponentially growing occurrence rate. These distributive features indicate that magnetar bursts can be regarded as a self-organizing critical process. We also compare these distributions with the repeating FRB 121102. The statistical properties of repeating FRB 121102 are similar with magentar bursts, combing with the large required magnetic filed ($Bgeq 10^{14}$G) of neutron star for FRB 121102, which indicates that the central engine of FRB 121102 may be a magnetar.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are a potential tool to probe high-redshift universe. However, the circularity problem enforces people to find model-independent methods to study the luminosity correlations of GRBs. Here, we present a new method which uses gr
avitational waves as standard sirens to calibrate GRB luminosity correlations. For the third-generation ground-based GW detectors (i.e., Einstein Telescope), the redshifts of gravitational wave (GW) events accompanied electromagnetic counterparts can reach out to $sim 4$, which is more distant than type Ia supernovae ($zlesssim 2$). The Amati relation and Ghirlanda relation are calibrated using mock GW catalogue from Einstein Telescope. We find that the $1sigma$ uncertainty of intercepts and slopes of these correlations can be constrained to less than 0.2% and 8% respectively. Using calibrated correlations, the evolution of dark energy equation of state can be tightly measured, which is important for discriminating dark energy models.
Recently, some divergent conclusions about cosmic acceleration were obtained using type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), with opposite assumptions on the intrinsic luminosity evolution. In this paper, we use strong gravitational lensing systems to probe the c
osmic acceleration. Since the theory of strong gravitational lensing is established certainly, and the Einstein radius is determined by stable cosmic geometry. We study two cosmological models, $Lambda$CDM and power-law models, through 152 strong gravitational lensing systems, incorporating with 30 Hubble parameters $H(z)$ and 11 baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) measurements. Bayesian evidence are introduced to make a one-on-one comparison between cosmological models. Basing on Bayes factors $ln B$ of flat $Lambda$CDM versus power-law and $R_{h}=ct$ models are $ln B>5$, we find that the flat $Lambda$CDM is strongly supported by the combination of the datasets. Namely, an accelerating cosmology with non power-law expansion is preferred by our numeration.
Recent studies have indicated that an anisotropic cosmic expansion may exist. In this paper, we use three datasets of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to probe the isotropy of cosmic acceleration. For the Union2.1 dataset, the direction and magnitude of t
he dipole are $(l=309.3^{circ} {}^{+ 15.5^{circ}}_{-15.7^{circ}} , b = -8.9^{circ} {}^{ + 11.2^{circ}}_{-9.8^{circ}} ), A=(1.46 pm 0.56) times 10^{-3}$. For the Constitution dataset, the results are $(l=67.0^{circ}{}^{+ 66.5^{circ}}_{-66.2^{circ}}, b=-0.6^{circ}{}^{+ 25.2^{circ}}_{-26.3^{circ}}), A=(4.4 pm 5.0) times 10^{-4}$. For the JLA dataset, no significant dipolar deviation is found. We also explore the effects of anisotropic distributions of coordinates and redshifts on the results using Monte-Carlo simulations. We find that the anisotropic distribution of coordinates can cause dipole directions and make dipole magnitude larger. Anisotropic distribution of redshifts is found to have no significant effect on dipole fitting results.
In this paper, we study the luminosity function and formation rate of short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs). Firstly, we derive the $E_p-L_p$ correlation using 16 sGRBs with redshift measurements and determine the pseudo redshifts of 284 Fermi sGRBs. Then,
we use the Lynden-Bell c$^-$ method to study the luminosity function and formation rate of sGRBs without any assumptions. A strong evolution of luminosity $L(z)propto (1+z)^{4.47}$ is found. After removing this evolution, the luminosity function is $ Psi (L) propto L_0 ^ {- 0.29 pm 0.01} $ for dim sGRBs and $ psi (L) propto L_0 ^ {- 1.07 pm 0.01} $ for bright sGRBs, with the break point $8.26 times 10^{50} $ erg s$^{-1}$. We also find that the formation rate decreases rapidly at $z<1.0$, which is different with previous works. The local formation rate of sGRBs is 7.53 events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. Considering the beaming effect, the local formation rate of sGRBs including off-axis sGRBs is $ 203.31^{+1152.09}_{-135.54} $ events Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$. We also estimate that the event rate of sGRBs detected by the advanced LIGO and Virgo is $0.85^{+4.82}_{-0.56} $ events yr$^{-1}$ for NS-NS binary.
Peculiar velocities are a precious tool to study the large-scale distribution of matter in the local universe and test cosmological models. However, present measurements of peculiar velocities are based on empirical distance indicators, which introdu
ce large error bars. Here we present a new method to measure the peculiar velocities, by directly estimating luminosity distances through waveform signals from inspiralling compact binaries and measuring redshifts from electromagnetic (EM) counterparts. In the future, with the distance uncertainty of GW events reducing to $0.1$ per cent by future GW detectors, the uncertainty of the peculiar velocity can be reduced to $10$ km/s at 100 mega parsecs. We find that dozens of GW events with EM counterparts can provide a Hubble constant $H_0$ uncertainty of $0.5%$ and the growth rate of structure with a $0.6%$ precision in the third-generation ground-base GW detectors, which can reconcile the $H_0$ tension and determine the origins for cosmic accelerated expansion.
