Gamma-ray burst supernovae as standardizable candles

Understand

A long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) marks the violent end of a massive star.

• GRBs are rare in the universe, and their progenitor stars are thought to possess unique physical properties such as low metal content and rapid rotation, while the supernovae (SNe) that are associated with GRBs are expected to be highly aspherical.
• To date, it has been unclear whether GRB-SNe could be used as standardizable candles, with contrasting conclusions found by different teams.
• In this paper I present evidence that GRB-SNe have the potential to be used as standardizable candles, and show that a statistically significant relation exists between the brightness and width of their decomposed light curves relative to a template supernova.