Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/9805263

Probing the Cosmic Star Formation History by Brightness Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Tomonori Totani
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Brightness distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) is studied in detail under the assumption that GRB rate is related to cosmic star formation rate. The two populations of the long- and short-duration bursts in the 4B BATSE catalog are analyzed separately. Taking account of current uncertainties in the observational estimate of star formation rate (SFR), we have tried various models of the cosmic star formation history and we find that the SFR evolution in $z$ = 0--1 is strongly constrained by the GRB distribution if the standard candle approximation is valid. The strong SFR evolution by a factor of $\sim$ 15 from $z$ = 0 to 1 inferred from UV observations is too steep to be consistent with the GRB distribution for any distance scale of GRBs. Some possibilities to reconcile this discrepancy are discussed, including the intrinsic luminosity dispersion of GRBs and/or modification of star formation history estimated by UV observations. We argue that SFR increase factor from $z$ = 0 to 1 may be as low as about 4 if we choose different sets of cosmological parameters and/or take account of the evolution of metallicity and dust extinction in the UV data, and this would significantly remedy the discrepancy.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Tomonori Totani. 1998-08-20. Probing the Cosmic Star Formation History by Brightness Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts. https://doi.org/10.1086/306664

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2024

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2023

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph↗