Gamma-Ray Bursts as Distance Indicators by a Statistical Learning Approach

Maria Giovanna Dainotti; Aditya Narendra; Agnieszka Pollo; Vahé Petrosian; Malgorzata Bogdan; Kazunari Iwasaki; Jason Xavier Prochaska; Enrico Rinaldi; David Zhou

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ad4970

The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)

Gamma-Ray Bursts as Distance Indicators by a Statistical Learning Approach

Maria Giovanna Dainotti,
Aditya Narendra,
Agnieszka Pollo,
Vahé Petrosian,
Malgorzata Bogdan,
Kazunari Iwasaki,
Jason Xavier Prochaska,
Enrico Rinaldi,
David Zhou

Affiliations

Maria Giovanna Dainotti: ORCiD; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan ; [email protected]; The Graduate University for Advanced Studies , SOKENDAI, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan; Space Science Institute , Boulder 80301, CO, USA
Aditya Narendra: ORCiD; Doctoral School of Exact and Natural Sciences , Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland; Astronomical Observatory of Jagiellonian University , Krakow, Poland
Agnieszka Pollo: ORCiD; Astronomical Observatory of Jagiellonian University , Krakow, Poland; National Center for Nuclear Physics (NCB) , Warsaw, Poland
Vahé Petrosian: ORCiD; Department of Physics, Stanford University , 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-4060, USA; Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University , USA; Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University , USA
Malgorzata Bogdan: ORCiD; Department of Mathematics, University of Wroclaw , 50-384, Poland; Department of Statistics, Lund University , SE-221 00 Lund, Sweden
Kazunari Iwasaki: ORCiD; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan ; [email protected]; The Graduate University for Advanced Studies , SOKENDAI, Kanagawa 240-0193, Japan; Center for Computational Astrophysics, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan , 2 Chome-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
Jason Xavier Prochaska: ORCiD; University of California , Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Enrico Rinaldi: ORCiD; Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS) Program , RIKEN, Wakoshi, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
David Zhou: ORCiD; Arizona State University , 1151 S Forest Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad4970
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 967, no. 2
p. L30

Abstract

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Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can be probes of the early Universe, but currently, only 26% of GRBs observed by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have known redshifts ( z ) due to observational limitations. To address this, we estimated the GRB redshift (distance) via a supervised statistical learning model that uses optical afterglow observed by Swift and ground-based telescopes. The inferred redshifts are strongly correlated (a Pearson coefficient of 0.93) with the observed redshifts, thus proving the reliability of this method. The inferred and observed redshifts allow us to estimate the number of GRBs occurring at a given redshift (GRB rate) to be 8.47–9 yr ^−1 Gpc ^−1 for 1.9 < z < 2.3. Since GRBs come from the collapse of massive stars, we compared this rate with the star formation rate, highlighting a discrepancy of a factor of 3 at z < 1.

Stellar phenomena

Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

ISSN: 2041-8205 (Print); 2041-8213 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy: Astrophysics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205

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