English

Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Functions Based on Luminosity Criteria

Astrophysics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

We review five studies of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) luminosity function that are based on one or more of the proposed luminosity criteria, i.e., variability, spectral lag and spectral hardness. A comparison between the resulting luminosity functions at redshift zero shows considerable divergence. We derive for each of the luminosity functions the expected source counts and the Euclidean value of <V/Vmax>. The source counts exhibit large differences from the observed counts. In most cases the value of <V/Vmax> differs substantially from the observed value of 0.34 for BATSE-based samples, with offsets ranging from 6-24 sigmas. Given that the value of <V/Vmax> is well established and that it is a cosmological distance indicator, we recommend that any study of the GRB luminosity function take its value into account.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0301277,
  title  = {Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Functions Based on Luminosity Criteria},
  author = {Maarten Schmidt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0301277},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

4 pages, 3 figures, contribution for Rome 2002 GRB Workshop

R2 v1 2026-07-22T08:19:17.425Z