Constraining ΩM and Dark Energy with Gamma-Ray Bursts

TLDR: In this article, the authors constrain the mass density of the universe and the nature of dark energy for a sample of 12 gamma-ray burst (GRB) with known redshift, peak energy, and break time of afterglow light curves.

Abstract: An E-gamma,E-jet proportional to E-p'(1.5) relationship with a small scatter for current gamma-ray burst (GRB) data was recently reported, where E-gamma,E-jet is the beaming-corrected gamma-ray energy and E'(p) is the nuF(nu) peak energy in the local observer frame. By considering this relationship for a sample of 12 GRBs with known redshift, peak energy, and break time of afterglow light curves, we constrain the mass density of the universe and the nature of dark energy. We find that the mass density Omega(M) = 0.35(-0.15)(+0.15) (at the 1 sigma confidence level) for a flat universe with a cosmological constant, and the w parameter of an assumed static dark energy equation of state w = -0.84(-0.83)(+0.57) ( 1 sigma). Our results are consistent with those from Type Ia supernovae. A larger sample established by the upcoming Swift satellite is expected to provide further constraints.