2004/01/31 by C. Firmani, Claudio Firmani, V. Avila-Reese +5 · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Earth Systems and Cosmic Evolution #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/422186
published as Astrophys.J. 611 (2004) 1033-1040 · ApJ accepted. Goodness-of-fit tests and small corrections to the text were introduced, the number of figures reduced to 4 out of 6, new references were added. Main results and conclusions remain the same
arxiv created 2004/04/27 · openalex publication_date 2004/08/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We constrain the isotropic luminosity function (LF) and formation rate of long γ-ray bursts (GRBs) by fitting models jointly to both the observed differential peak-flux and redshift distributions. We find evidence supporting an evolving LF, where the luminosity scales as (1 + z ) δ , with an optimal δ of 1.0 ± 0.2. For a single-power law LF, the best slope is approximately -1.57 with an upper luminosity of 10 53.3 ergs s -1 , while the best slopes for a double-power law LF are approximately -1.6 and -2.6, with a break luminosity of 10 52.7 ergs s -1 . Our finding implies a jet model intermediate between the universal structured (θ) ∝ θ -2 model and the quasi-universal Gaussian structured model. For the uniform-jet model our result is compatible with an angle distribution between 2° and 15°. Our best-constrained GRB formation rate histories increase from z = 0 to 2 by a factor of ~30 and then continue increasing slightly. We connect these histories to the cosmic star formation history and compare with observational inferences up to z ~ 6. GRBs could be tracing the cosmic rates of both the normal and obscured star formation regimes. We estimate a current GRB event rate in the Milky Way of ~5 × 10 -5 yr -1 and compare it with the birthrate of massive close Wolf-Rayet + black hole binaries with orbital periods of hours. The agreement is rather good, suggesting that these systems could be the progenitors of the long GRBs.