Accounting for Selection Bias and Redshift Evolution in GRB Radio Afterglow Data

Abstract

Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are highly energetic events that can be observed at extremely high redshift. However, inherent bias in GRB data due to selection effects and redshift evolution can significantly skew any subsequent analysis. We correct for important variables related to the GRB emission, such as the burst duration, T90*, the prompt isotropic energy, Eiso, the rest-frame end time of the plateau emission, Ta,radio*, and its correspondent luminosity La,radio, for radio afterglow. In particular, we use the Efron–Petrosian method presented in 1992 for the correction of our variables of interest. Specifically, we correct Eiso and T90* for 80 GRBs, and La,radio and Ta,radio* for a subsample of 18 GRBs that present a plateau-like flattening in their light curve. Upon application of this method, we find strong evolution with redshift in most variables, particularly in La,radio, with values similar to those found in past and current literature in radio, X-ray and optical wavelengths, indicating that these variables are susceptible to observational bias. This analysis emphasizes the necessity of correcting observational data for evolutionary effects to obtain the intrinsic behavior of correlations to use them as discriminators among the most plausible theoretical models and as reliable cosmological tools.

Cosmology Intertwined: A Review of the Particle Physics, Astrophysics, and Cosmology Associated with the Cosmological Tensions and Anomalies

“…For example if the so-called Dainotti relation in two dimensions can be interpreted within the magnetar model, than the slope of the correlation is expected to be 1 within 1 σ. For details on the topic of GRB correlations, on the selection biases they undergo and their application as cosmological tools see a series of review papers [2211,2216,[2218][2219][2220] Recent works [1765,2221,2222] have used the Hubble diagram of GRBs to constrain the expansion history of the Universe and to measure the properties of dark energy. These works rely on methodology developed earlier in Refs.…”

Quasars as high-redshift standard candles

“…The two aims described above were pursued in the most direct way: we performed a complete UV and X-ray spectroscopic analysis of all the sources in the sample in order to improve the accuracy of flux measurements. The sample covers an optimal redshift interval to test possible deviations of the Hubble diagram from the standard cosmological model (see also Lusso et al 2019and Dainotti et al 2021b, 2022b concerning the Hubble constant tension), as in the case of gammaray bursts used as standardizable candles (Dainotti et al 2008(Dainotti et al , 2011(Dainotti et al , 2013(Dainotti et al , 2015(Dainotti et al , 2016(Dainotti et al , 2021a(Dainotti et al , 2022cCardone et al 2009Cardone et al , 2010Capozziello et al 2012;Postnikov et al 2014;Cao et al 2022), and its size balances the need for high enough statistics and the feasibility of a complete spectroscopic analysis.…”

Running Hubble constant from the SNe Ia Pantheon sample?

“…Concerning the future perspectives, to explore further the possible evolution of cosmological parameters, it could be very useful to include in our analysis also probes at high redshifts, such as the Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), which in principle could allow to enlarge the redshift range of the actual Hubble diagram [20,21,22,23,24,25]. This work could be regarded as a preliminary study for the application of GRBs in cosmology, using, for instance, the prompt-afterglow relations with the plateau emission [26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42], similarly to the magnetar model [43,44,45].…”