Can gamma-ray bursts constrain quintessence?

Abstract

Using the narrow clustering of the geometrically corrected gamma-ray energies released by gamma-ray bursts, we investigate the possibility of using these sources as standard candles to probe cosmological parameters such as the matter density Omega_m and the cosmological constant energy density Omega_Lambda. By simulating different samples of gamma-ray bursts, we find that Omega_m can be determined with accuracy ~7% with data from 300 sources. We also show that, if Omega = 1 is due to a quintessence field, some of the models proposed in the literature may be discriminated from a Universe with cosmological constant, by a similar-sized sample of gamma-ray bursts.

21 pages, 4 figures