Gamma-Ray Bursts, Supernovae Ia and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations: a binned cosmological analysis

Abstract

Cosmological probes at any redshift are necessary to reconstruct consistently the cosmic history. Studying properly the tension on the Hubble constant, $H_0$, obtained by Supernovae Type Ia (SNe Ia) and the Planck measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation would require complete samples of distance indicators at any epoch. Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are necessary for the aforementioned task because of their huge luminosity that allows us to extend the cosmic ladder at very high redshifts. However, using GRBs alone as standard candles is challenging because their luminosity varies widely. To this end, we choose a reliable correlation for GRBs with a very small intrinsic scatter: the so-called fundamental plane correlation for GRB afterglows corrected for selection biases and redshift evolution. We choose a well-defined sample: the platinum sample, composed of 50 Long GRBs. To further constrain cosmological parameters, we use Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAOs) given their reliability as standard rulers. Thus, we have applied GRBs, SNe Ia, and BAOs in a binned analysis in redshifts so that GRBs' contribution is fully included in the last redshift bin, which reaches $z=5$. We use the fundamental plane correlation together with SNe Ia and BAOs, to constrain $H_0$ and the density matter today, $\Omega_{M}$. This methodology allows us to assess the role of GRBs combined with SNe Ia and BAOs. We have obtained results for $H_0$ and $\Omega_{M}$ using GRBs+ SNe Ia+BAOs with better precision than the SNe Ia alone for every bin, thus confirming the beneficial role of BAOs and GRBs added together. In addition, consistent results between GRBs+ SNe Ia +BAOs are obtained when compared with the SNe Ia +BAOs, showing the importance of GRBs since the distance ladder is extended up to $z=5$ with a similar precision obtained with other probes without including the GRBs.