What are GRBs?
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, which makes them visible at great distances. In just a few seconds, GRBs release more energy than the Sun emits over its entire lifetime. GRBs are thought to be produced in highly energetic events like collapsars or hypernovae, mergers between neutron stars or neutron stars with black holes, and magnetar giant flares.
What is cosmology?
Cosmology is the study of the Universe as a whole, its origin, evolution, and fate. For nearly a century, we have known that the Universe is expanding, and in the last decades, that this expansion is accelerated. Despite the Hubble-Lemaître constant (the expansion rate) being a key value for cosmology, there is a diverging discrepancy between methods based on the local Universe (standard candles and distance ladder) and the ones based on the early universe (CMB).
Why are GRBs important to cosmology?
GRBs are standardizable distance indicators, which means expanding the distance ladder method to greater distances and providing new tools for cosmology. Not only will this help refine the value for the Hubble-Lemaître constant, but it will also allow for precise fitting of cosmological models, leading to a better understanding of other fundamental parameters of the Universe. The goal is to provide new data at greater distances to test cosmological models of the Universe, including testing the evolution of dark energy.
