Luminosity function of GRBs

Abstract

We attempt to constrain the luminosity function of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) from the observed number count-flux relation and the afterglow redshift data. We assume three classes of luminosity functions for our analysis: (a) Log-normal distribution, (b) Schechter distribution, and (c) Scale-free distribution. We assume several models of the evolution of the GRB population for each luminosity function. Our analysis shows that: (a) log-normal is the only luminosity function that is compatible with both the observations. This result is independent of the GRB evolution model, (b) for log-normal function, the average photon luminosity L0 and the width of the luminosity function σ that are compatible with both the observations fall in the range: 1055 s-1 ≲ L0 ≲ 1056 s-1 and 2 ≲ σ ≲ 3, (c) the agreement of observations with other luminosity functions requires the GRB population to evolve more strongly than the evolution of the star-formation rate of the universe.