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The statistical properties of energy and waiting time carry essential information about the source of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). In this paper, we investigate the randomness of energy and waiting time using four data samples from three extremely active repeating FRBs observed by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). We report the deviation from complete randomness of the burst activity using three statistics, i.e., Hurst exponent, Pincus index and non-Gaussian probability density distribution of fluctuations. First, the Hurst exponent greater than 0.5 reveals that there is long-term memory in the time series of energy and waiting time. Second, the deviation of the Pincus index from 1.0 manifests that the time series is not completely random. Finally, the fluctuations of energy and waiting time follow the scale-invariant $q$-Gaussian distribution. All these statistical properties imply that, although the time series of repeating FRBs seems to be irregular, they are not completely random, similar to the features of self-organized criticality., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, accepted by MNRAS

In spite of significant progress in the research of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in recent decade, their origin is still under extensive debate. Investigation on the population of FRBs can provide new insight into this interesting problem. In this paper, based on the first CHIME/FRB catalog, we construct a Bayesian framework to analyze the FRB population, with the selection effect of the CHIME telescope being properly taken into account. The energy function is modeled as the power-law with an exponential cutoff. Four redshift distribution models are considered, i.e., the star formation history (SFH) model, and three time-delayed models (Gaussian delay, log-normal delay, and power-law delay). The free parameters are simultaneously constrained using Bayesian inference method, and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is used in model comparison. According to BIC, the log-normal delay model fits the data best. The power-law delay model and Gaussian delay model can also give reasonable fits, although they are not as good as the log-normal delay model. However, the SFH model is strongly disfavored compared with the three time-delayed models. The energy function is tightly constrained and is almost independent of the redshift models, with the best-fitting power-law index $\alpha\approx 1.8$, and cut-off energy $\log(E_c/{\rm erg})\approx 42$. The FRB population shows on average $3\sim 5$ billion years time delay with respect to the SFH. Therefore, the hypothesis that the FRB population traces the SFH is conclusively ruled out., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by Astrophysical Journal

We investigate the possible anisotropy of the universe using the most up-to-date type Ia supernovae, i.e. the Pantheon+ compilation. We fit the full Pantheon+ data with the dipole-modulated $\Lambda$CDM model, and find that it is well consistent with a null dipole. We further divide the full sample into several subsamples with different high-redshift cutoff $z_c$. It is shown that the dipole appears at $2\sigma$ confidence level only if $z_c\leq 0.1$, and in this redshift region the dipole is very stable, almost independent of the specific value of $z_c$. For $z_c=0.1$, the dipole amplitude is $D=1.0_{-0.4}^{+0.4}\times 10^{-3}$, pointing towards $(l,b)=(334.5_{\ -21.6^{\circ}}^{\circ +25.7^{\circ}},16.0_{\ -16.8^{\circ}}^{\circ +27.1^{\circ}})$, which is about $65^{\circ}$ away from the CMB dipole. This implies that the full Pantheon+ is consistent with a large-scale isotropic universe, but the low-redshift anisotropy couldn't be purely explained by the peculiar motion of the local universe., Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures

In this paper, we investigate the FRB population using the first CHIME/FRB catalog. We first reconstruct the extragalactic dispersion measure -- redshift relation ($\mathrm{DM_E} - z$ relation) from well-localized FRBs, then use it to infer redshift and isotropic energy of the first CHIME/FRB catalog. The intrinsic energy distribution is modeled by the power law with an exponential cutoff, and the selection effect of the CHIME telescope is modeled by a two-parametric function of specific fluence. For the intrinsic redshift distribution, the star formation history (SFH) model, as well as other five SFH-related models are considered. We construct the joint likelihood of fluence, energy and redshift, and all the free parameters are constrained simultaneously using Bayesian inference method. The Bayesian information criterion (BIC) is used to choose the model that best matches the observational data. For comparison, we fit our models with two data samples, i.e. the Full sample and the Gold sample. The power-law index and cutoff energy are tightly constrained to be $1.8 \lesssim \alpha \lesssim 1.9$ and $\mathrm{log}(E_c/{\rm erg}) \approx 42$, which are almost independent of the redshift distribution model and the data sample we choose. The parameters involving the selection effect strongly depends on the data sample, but are insensitive to the redshift distribution model. According to BIC, the pure SFH model is strongly disfavored by both the Full sample and Gold sample. For the rest five SFH-related redshift distribution models, most of them can match the data well if the parameters are properly chosen. Therefore, with the present data, it is still premature to draw a conclusive conclusion on the FRB population., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

Based on two very large samples of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs), i.e. FRB 20121102A and FRB 20201124A observed by the FAST telescope, we study the statistical properties of energy and waiting time. The bent power-law (BPL) model, thresholded power-law (TPL) model and Band function are used to fit the distribution of energy, and the BPL model and exponential (EXP) model are used to fit the distribution of waiting time. It is found that no single model can fit the distribution of energy or waiting time well in the full range. To investigate the possible temporal evolution, we divide the full samples into several subsamples according to the observing sessions. We find that the distribution of energy for all subsamples can be well fitted by both BPL model and TPL model, while the distribution of waiting time for all subsamples can be well fitted by both BPL model and EXP model. Importantly, for the distribution of energy, the BPL index $\beta$ of all the subsamples is almost invariant, but the median value parameter $x_b$ varies significantly. Similar situation happens in the distribution of waiting time. Furthermore, for the distribution of waiting time, the occurrence rate parameter $\lambda$ in EXP model varies significantly. These features show that there may be a common emission mechanism for repeating FRBs, but the burst energy and occurrence rate are temporally evolving., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

We reconstruct the extragalactic dispersion measure \ -- redshift relation (${\rm DM_E}-z$ relation) from well-localized fast radio bursts (FRBs) using Bayesian inference method. Then the ${\rm DM_E}-z$ relation is used to infer the redshift and energy of the first CHIME/FRB catalog. We find that the distributions of extragalactic dispersion measure and inferred redshift of the non-repeating CHIME/FRBs follow cut-off power law, but with a significant excess at the low-redshift range. We apply a set of criteria to exclude events which are susceptible to selection effect, but find that the excess at low redshift still exists in the remaining FRBs (which we call Gold sample). The cumulative distributions of fluence and energy for both the full sample and the Gold sample do not follow the simple power law, but they can be well fitted by the bent power law. The underlying physical implications remain to be further investigated., Comment: 13 pages plus one long table, accepted by Chinese Physics C

We investigate the fraction of baryon mass in intergalactic medium ($f_\mathrm{IGM}$), using 18 well-localized FRBs in the redshift range $z\in (0.0039,0.66)$. We construct a five-parameter Bayesian inference model, with the probability distributions of dispersion measures (DM) of IGM and host galaxy properly taken into account. To check the possible redshift evolution, we parameterize $f_\mathrm{IGM}$ as a mildly evolving function of redshift, $f_\mathrm{IGM}=f_\mathrm{IGM,0}[1+\alpha z/(1+z)]$. By simultaneously constraining five parameters, we get $f_\mathrm{IGM,0} = 0.92^{+0.06}_{-0.12}$ and $\alpha = 0.49^{+0.59}_{-0.47}$, and the median value of DM of host galaxy is $\exp(\mu)=72.49^{+33.31}_{-25.62}~{\rm pc ~ cm ^ {-3}}$. By fixing two parameters which can be constrained independently with other observations, we obtain $\alpha =0.11^{+0.24}_{-0.27}$ in the three-parameter fit, which is consistent with zero within $1\sigma$ uncertainty. Monte Carlo simulations show that even 300 FRBs are not enough to tightly constrain five parameters simultaneously. This is mainly caused by the correlation between parameters. Only if two parameters are fixed, 100 FRBs are necessary to achieve unbiased constraints on the remaining parameters.

We constrain the photon mass from well-localized fast radio bursts (FRBs) using Bayes inference method. The probability distributions of dispersion measures (DM) of host galaxy and intergalactic medium are properly taken into account. The photon mass is tightly constrained from 17 well-localized FRBs in the redshift range $0

The cosmic distance duality relation (DDR) is constrained from the combination of type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and strong gravitational lensing (SGL) systems using deep learning method. To make use of the full SGL data, we reconstruct the luminosity distance from SNe Ia up to the highest redshift of SGL using deep learning, then it is compared with the angular diameter distance obtained from SGL. Considering the influence of lens mass profile, we constrain the possible violation of DDR in three lens mass models. Results show that in the SIS model and EPL model, DDR is violated at high confidence level, with the violation parameter $\eta_0=-0.193^{+0.021}_{-0.019}$ and $\eta_0=-0.247^{+0.014}_{-0.013}$, respectively. In the PL model, however, DDR is verified within 1$\sigma$ confidence level, with the violation parameter $\eta_0=-0.014^{+0.053}_{-0.045}$. Our results demonstrate that the constraints on DDR strongly depend on the lens mass models. Given a specific lens mass model, DDR can be constrained at a precision of $\textit{O}(10^{-2})$ using deep learning., Comment: 11 pages,4 figures

The application of fast radio bursts (FRBs) as probes to investigate astrophysics and cosmology requires the proper modelling of the dispersion measures of Milky Way (${\rm DM_{MW}}$) and host galaxy (${\rm DM_{host}}$). ${\rm DM_{MW}}$ can be estimated using the Milky Way electron models, such as NE2001 model and YMW16 model. However, ${\rm DM_{host}}$ is hard to model due to limited information on the local environment of FRBs. In this paper, using 17 well-localized FRBs, we search for the possible correlations between ${\rm DM_{host}}$ and the properties of host galaxies, such as the redshift, the stellar mass, the star-formation rate, the age of galaxy, the offset of FRB site from galactic center, and the half-light radius. We find no strong correlation between ${\rm DM_{host}}$ and any of the host property. Assuming that ${\rm DM_{host}}$ is a constant for all host galaxies, we constrain the fraction of baryon mass in the intergalactic medium today to be $f_{\rm IGM,0}=0.78_{-0.19}^{+0.15}$. If we model ${\rm DM_{host}}$ as a log-normal distribution, however, we obtain a larger value, $f_{\rm IGM,0}=0.83_{-0.17}^{+0.12}$. Based on the limited number of FRBs, no strong evidence for the redshift evolution of $f_{\rm IGM}$ is found., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables, accepted by Chinese Physics C

We propose that fast radio bursts (FRBs) can be used as the probes to constrain the possible anisotropic distribution of baryon matter in the Universe. Monte Carlo simulations show that, 400 (800) FRBs are enough to detect the anisotropy at 95\% (99\%) confidence level, if the dipole amplitude is at the order of magnitude 0.01. However, much more FRBs are required to tightly constrain the dipole direction. Even 1000 FRBs are far from enough to constrain the dipole direction within angular uncertainty $\Delta\theta<40^{\circ}$ at 95\% confidence level. The uncertainty on the dispersion measure of host galaxy does not significantly affect the results. If the dipole amplitude is in the level of 0.001, however, 1000 FRBs are not enough to correctly detect the anisotropic signal., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

We calibrate the distance and reconstruct the Hubble diagram of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using deep learning. We construct an artificial neural network, which combines the recurrent neural network and Bayesian neural network, and train the network using the Pantheon compilation of type-Ia supernovae. The trained network is used to calibrate the distance of 174 GRBs based on the Combo-relation. We verify that there is no evident redshift evolution of Combo-relation, and obtain the slope and intercept parameters, $\gamma=0.856^{+0.083}_{-0.078}$ and $\log A=49.661^{+0.199}_{-0.217}$, with an intrinsic scatter $\sigma_{\rm int}=0.228^{+0.041}_{-0.040}$. Our calibrating method is independent of cosmological model, thus the calibrated GRBs can be directly used to constrain cosmological parameters. It is shown that GRBs alone can tightly constrain the $\Lambda$CDM model, with $\Omega_{\rm M}=0.280^{+0.049}_{-0.057}$. However, the constraint on the $\omega$CDM model is relatively looser, with $\Omega_{\rm M}=0.345^{+0.059}_{-0.060}$ and $\omega<-1.414$. The combination of GRBs and Pantheon can tightly constrain the $\omega$CDM model, with $\Omega_{\rm M}=0.336^{+0.055}_{-0.050}$ and $\omega=-1.141^{+0.156}_{-0.135}$., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables

We study the statistical properties of the soft gamma repeater SGR 1935+2154. We find that the cumulative distributions of duration, waiting time, fluence and flux can be well fitted by bent power law. In addition, the probability density functions of fluctuations of duration, waiting time, fluence and flux well follow the Tsallis $q$-Gaussian distribution. The $q$ values keep steady for different temporal scale intervals, indicating a scale-invariant structure of the bursts. Those features are very similar to the property of the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102, indicating the underlying association between the origins of soft gamma repeaters and repeating fast radio bursts., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected at high redshift can be used to trace the Hubble diagram of the Universe. However, the distance calibration of GRBs is not as easily as that of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). For the calibrating method based on the empirical luminosity correlations, there is an underlying assumption that the correlations should be universal over the whole redshift range. In this paper, we investigate the possible redshift dependence of six luminosity correlations with a completely model-independent deep learning method. We construct a network combining the Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) and the Bayesian Neural Networks (BNN), where RNN is used to reconstruct the distance-redshift relation by training the network with the Pantheon compilation, and BNN is used to calculate the uncertainty of the reconstruction. Using the reconstructed distance-redshift relation of Pantheon, we test the redshift dependence of six luminosity correlations by dividing the full GRB sample into two subsamples (low-$z$ and high-$z$ subsamples), and find that only the $E_p-E_{\gamma}$ relation has no evidence for redshift dependence. We use the $E_p-E_{\gamma}$ relation to calibrate GRBs, and the calibrated GRBs give tight constraint on the flat $\Lambda$CDM model, with the best-fitting parameter $\Omega_{\rm M}$=0.307$^{+0.065}_{-0.073}$., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

We use simulated strongly lensed gravitational wave events from the Einstein Telescope to demonstrate how the luminosity and angular diameter distances, $d_L(z)$ and $d_A(z)$ respectively, can be combined to test in a model independent manner for deviations from the cosmic distance duality relation and the standard cosmological model. In particular, we use two machine learning approaches, the Genetic Algorithms and Gaussian Processes, to reconstruct the mock data and we show that both approaches are capable of correctly recovering the underlying fiducial model and can provide percent-level constraints at intermediate redshifts when applied to future Einstein Telescope data., Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, changes match published version

The cosmic distance relation (DDR) associates the angular diameters distance ($D_A$) and luminosity distance ($D_L$) by a simple formula, i.e., $D_L=(1+z)^2D_A$. The strongly lensed gravitational waves (GWs) provide a unique way to measure $D_A$ and $D_L$ simultaneously to the GW source, hence can be used as probes to test DDR. In this paper, we prospect the use of strongly lensed GW events from the future Einstein Telescope to test DDR. We write the possible deviation of DDR as $(1+z)^2D_A/D_L=\eta(z)$, and consider two different parametrizations of $\eta(z)$, namely, $\eta_1(z)=1+\eta_0 z$ and $\eta_2(z)=1+\eta_0 z/(1+z)$. Numerical simulations show that, with about 100 strongly lensed GW events observed by ET, the parameter $\eta_0$ can be constrained at $1.3\%$ and $3\%$ levels for the first and second parametrizations, respectively., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

The statistical properties of the repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102 are investigated. We find that the cumulative distributions of fluence, flux density, total energy and waiting time can be well fitted by the bent power law. In addition, the probability density functions of fluctuations of fluence, flux density and total energy well follow the Tsallis $q$-Gaussian distribution. The $q$ values keep steady around $q\sim 2$ for different scale intervals, indicating a scale-invariant structure of the bursts. The statistical properties of FRB 121102 are very similar to that of the soft gamma repeater SGR J1550-5418. The underlying physical implications need to be further investigated., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables

We propose a new method to test the cosmic distance duality relation using the strongly lensed gravitational waves. The simultaneous observations of image positions, the relative time delay between different images, the redshift measurements of lens and source, together with the mass modelling of the lens galaxy, provide the angular diameter distance to the gravitational wave source. On the other hand, from the observation of gravitational wave signals the luminosity distance to the source can be obtained. This is to our knowledge the first method to simultaneously measure both the angular diameter distance and luminosity distance from the same source. Thus, the strongly lensed gravitational waves provide a unique way to test the cosmic distance duality relation. With the construction of the third generation gravitational detectors such as the Einstein Telescope in the future, it is possible to test the cosmic distance duality relation at an accuracy of several percent., Comment: 6 pages, 0 figure and 0 table, accepted by Chinese Physics C

We investigate the dark matter profile of the Milky Way using the observed rotation curve data out to 100 kpc. The baryonic matter of the Milky Way is divided into bulge, disk and gas components, and each component is modelled using various possible mass profiles available in literature. The arbitrary combination of seven bulge profiles, four disk profiles and two gas profiles results in fifty-six baryon models. These baryon models are combined with one of the four dark matter profiles: Burkert profile, core-modified profile, pseudo-isothermal profile and NFW profile, to fit the observed rotation curve data. Results show that in general the NFW profile fits the data better than the Burkert profile, while the core-modified profile and the pseudo-isothermal profile are essentially ruled out. The best-fitting NFW model has the scale length $r_0=8.1\pm 0.7$ kpc, and the corresponding local density of dark matter is $\rho_{\rm dm}(R=R_\odot)=0.51\pm0.09~{\rm GeV}/{\rm cm}^3$., Comment: 7 pages + 9 pages of supplementary materials, MNRAS accepted

The equation of state (EoS) of dark energy plays an important role in the evolution of the universe and arouses great interests in recent years. With the progress on observational technique, precise constraint on the EoS of dark energy becomes possible. In this paper, we reconstruct the EoS of dark energy and cosmic expansion using Gaussian processes (GP) from the most up-to-date Pantheon compilation of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), which consists of 1048 finely calibrated SNe Ia. The reconstructed EoS of dark energy has large uncertainty due to its dependence on the second order derivative of the construction. Adding the direct measurements of Hubble parameters $H(z)$ as an additional constraint on the first order derivative can partially reduce the uncertainty, but is still not precise enough to distinguish between evolving and constant dark energy. Besides, the results heavily rely on the prior of Hubble constant $H_0$. The $H_0$ value inferred from SNe+$H(z)$ without prior is $H_0=70.5\pm 0.5~{\textrm{km}~\textrm{s}^{-1}~\textrm{Mpc}^{-1}}$. Moreover, the matter density $\Omega_M$ has an unnegligible effect on the reconstruction of dark energy. Therefore, more accurate determinations on $H_0$ and $\Omega_M$ are needed to tightly constrain the EoS of dark energy., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures

The observation of GW150914 indicated a new independent measurement of the luminosity distance of a gravitational wave event. In this paper, we constrain the anisotropy of the Universe by using gravitational wave events. We simulate hundreds of events of binary neutron star merging that may be observed by Einstein Telescope. Full simulation for producing process of gravitational wave data is employed. We find that 200 of binary neutron star merging in redshift $(0,1)$ observed by Einstein Telescope may constrain the anisotropy with an accuracy comparable to the result from Union2.1 supernovae. This result shows that gravitational waves can be a powerful tool in investigating the cosmological anisotropy., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

The possible variation of the electromagnetic fine structure constant $\alpha_e$ on cosmological scales arouses great interests in recent years. The strongly lensed gravitational waves and the electromagnetic counterparts could be used to test this variation. Under the assumption that the speed of photon could be modified, while the speed of GW is the same as GR predicated, and they both propagate in a flat Friedman-Robertson-Walker universe, we investigate the difference of time delays of the images and derive the upper bound of the variation of $\alpha_e$. For a typical lensing system in the standard cosmological models, we obtain $B\cos\theta\leq 1.85\times10^{-5}$, where $B$ is the dipolar amplitude and $\theta$ is the angle between observation and the preferred direction. Our result is consistent with the most up-to-date observations on $\alpha_e$. In addition, the observations of strongly lensed gravitational waves and the electromagnetic counterparts could be used to test which types of alternative theories of gravity can account for the variation of $\alpha_e$., Comment: 5 pages,0 figures

In this paper, we use two hydrodynamic simulations to study the barycentre offsets $r_{{\rm off}}$ between the entire halo and the gas or dark matter subhalo with largest overdensity. We restrict our analysis to those halos with large rescaled offsets, i.e. $r_{{\rm off}}/r_{200}\gtrsim 0.05$. The halos which are less massive and at higher redshifts are more likely to have larger $r_{{\rm off}}/r_{200}$. The 3D velocity dispersion of the subhalos with largest overdensity is found to have a similar mass and redshift dependence as $r_{{\rm off}}/r_{200}$. We also find that the gas subhalos with maximum overdensity and larger gas velocity dispersion $\sigma_{v}^{\rm ICM,sub}/\sigma_{200}$ tend to have smaller barycentre offsets $r_{{\rm off}}/r_{200}$. Similar result is found for the highest overdensity dark matter subhalos but with less significance. This anti-correlation is more significant for the snapshot $z=0$ than $z=0.2$ and $0.5$. The underlying physical mechanism for this anti-correlation remains to be explored., Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The cosmic distance duality relation (DDR), which connects the angular diameter distance and luminosity distance through a simple formula $D_A(z)(1+z)^2/D_L(z)\equiv1$, is an important relation in cosmology. Therefore, testing the validity of DDR is of great importance. In this paper, we test the possible violation of DDR using the available local data including type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), galaxy clusters and baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). We write the modified DDR as $D_A(z)(1+z)^2/D_L(z)=\eta(z)$, and consider two different parameterizations of $\eta(z)$, namely $\eta_1(z)=1+\eta_0 z$ and $\eta_2(z)=1+\eta_0 z/(1+z)$. The luminosity distance from SNe Ia are compared with the angular diameter distance from galaxy clusters and BAO at the same redshift. Two different cluster data are used here, i.e. elliptical clusters and spherical clusters. The parameter $\eta_0$ is obtained using the Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. It is found that $\eta_0$ can be strictly constrained by the elliptical clusters + BAO data, with the best-fitting values $\eta_0=-0.04\pm 0.12$ and $\eta_0=-0.05\pm 0.22$ for the first and second parametrizations, respectively. However, the spherical clusters + BAO data couldn't strictly constrain $\eta_0$ due to the large intrinsic scatter. In any case studied here, no evidence for the violation of DDR is found., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 2 table, accepted by MNRAS

We report a possible dipole anisotropy on acceleration scale $g_{\dag}$ with 147 rotationally supported galaxies in local Universe. It is found that a monopole and dipole correction for the radial acceleration relation can better describe the SPARC data set. The monopole term is negligible but the dipole magnitude is significant. It is also found that the dipole correction is mostly induced by the anisotropy on the acceleration scale. The magnitude of $\hat{g}_{\dag}$-dipole reaches up to $0.25\pm0.04$, and its direction is aligned to $(l,b) = (171.30^{\circ}\pm7.18^{\circ}, -15.41^{\circ}\pm4.87^{\circ})$, which is very close to the maximum anisotropy direction from the hemisphere comparison method. Furthermore, robust check shows that the dipole anisotropy couldn't be reproduced by isotropic mock data set. However, it is still premature to claim that the Universe is anisotropic due to the small data samples and uncertainty in the current observations., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, 1 table

The detection of gravitational waves (GWs) provides a powerful tool to constrain the cosmological parameters. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of using GWs as standard sirens in testing the anisotropy of the universe. We consider the GW signals produced by the coalescence of binary black hole systems and simulate hundreds of GW events from the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and Virgo. It is found that the anisotropy of the universe can be tightly constrained if the redshift of the GW source is precisely known. The anisotropic amplitude can be constrained with an accuracy comparable to the Union2.1 complication of type-Ia supernovae if $\gtrsim 400$ GW events are observed. As for the preferred direction, $\gtrsim 800$ GW events are needed in order to achieve the accuracy of Union2.1. With 800 GW events, the probability of pseudo anisotropic signals with an amplitude comparable to Union2.1 is negligible. These results show that GWs can provide a complementary tool to supernovae in testing the anisotropy of the universe., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures

We test the cosmological principle by fitting a dipolar modulation of distance modulus and searching for an evolution of this modulation with respect to cosmological redshift. Based on a redshift tomographic method, we divide the Joint Light-curve Analysis compilation of supernovae of type Ia into different redshift bins, and employ a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo method to infer the anisotropic amplitude and direction in each redshift bin. However, we do not find any significant deviations from the cosmological principle, and the anisotropic amplitude is stringently constrained to be less than a few thousandths at $95\%$ confidence level., Comment: 7 pages, 1 table, 5 figures

We constrain three cosmological models, i.e. the concordance cold dark matter plus a cosmological constant ($\Lambda$CDM) model, Power-law (PL) model, and $R_h=ct$ model using the available local probes, which includes the JLA compilation of type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), the direct measurement of Hubble constant (H(z)), and the baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO). For $\Lambda$CDM model, we consider two different cases, i.e. zero and non-zero spatial curvature. We find that by using the JLA alone, it is indistinguishable between $\Lambda$CDM and PL models, but the $R_h=ct$ model is strongly disfavored. If we combine JLA+H(z), the $\Lambda$CDM model is strongly favored against the other two models. The combination of all the three datasets also supports $\Lambda$CDM as the best model. We also use the low-redshift ($z<0.2$) data to constrain the deceleration parameter using cosmography method, and find that only the $\Lambda$CDM model is consistent with cosmography. However, there is no strong evidence to distinguish between flat and non-flat $\Lambda$CDM models by using the local data alone., Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables

We test the possible deviation of the cosmic distance duality relation $D_A(z)(1+z)^2/D_L(z)\equiv 1$ using the standard candles/rulers in a fully model-independent manner. Type-Ia supernovae are used as the standard candles to derive the luminosity distance $D_L(z)$, and ultra-compact radio sources are used as the standard rulers to obtain the angular diameter distance $D_A(z)$. We write the deviation of distance duality relation as $D_A(z)(1+z)^2/D_L(z)=\eta(z)$. Specifically, we use two parameterizations of $\eta(z)$, i.e. $\eta_1(z)=1+\eta_0 z$ and $\eta_2(z)=1+\eta_0 z/(1+z)$. The parameter $\eta_0$ is obtained using the Markov chain Monte Carlo methods by comparing $D_L(z)$ and $D_A(z)$ at the same redshift. The best-fitting results are $\eta_0=-0.06\pm 0.05$ and $-0.18\pm 0.16$ for the first and second parameterizations, respectively. Our results depend on neither the cosmological models, nor the matter contents or the curvature of the universe., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The distance duality relation (DDR) is valid in Riemannian spacetime. The astronomical data hint that the universe may have certain preferred direction. If the universe is described by anisotropic cosmological models based on Riemannian spacetime, then DDR still valid. If the anisotropy universe is described by other models which are not based on Riemannian spacetime, then DDR is violated. Thus, DDR could be used to test the validity of these anisotropic cosmological models. In this paper, we perform anisotropic DDR parametrization with the dipolar structures. The DDR is tested by comparing the luminosity distance from type-Ia supernovae (Union 2.1 and JLA compilations) and the angular diameter distance from strong gravitational lensing (SL) systems at the same redshift. It is shown that, the DDR is valid with the Union2.1 compilation, while is violated more than 1$\sigma$ confidence level with the JLA compilation. Additionally, we verify the statistical signification of our method with Monte Carlo simulations. Due to the large uncertainty of available data, no strong evidence is found to violate the DDR in the anisotropic models., Comment: 10 pages,2 tables

A common explanation for the CMB power asymmetry is to introduce a dipolar modulation at the stage of inflation, where the primordial power spectrum is spatially varying. If the universe in the stage of inflation is Finslerian, and if the Finsler spacetime is non-reversible under parity flip, $x\rightarrow-x$, then a three dimensional spectrum which is the function of wave vector and direction is valid. In this paper, a three dimensional primordial power spectrum with preferred direction is derived in the framework of Finsler spacetime. It is found that the amplitude of dipolar modulation is related to the Finslerian parameter, which in turn is a function of wave vector. The angular correlation coefficients are presented, and the numerical results for the anisotropic correlation coefficients over the multipole range $2

Recent observations show that the electromagnetic fine-structure constant, $\alpha_e$, may vary with space and time. In the framework of Finsler spacetime, we propose here an anisotropic cosmological model, in which both the spatial and temporal variations of $\alpha_e$ are allowed. Our model naturally leads to the dipole structure of $\alpha_e$, and predicts that the dipole amplitude increases with time. We fit our model to the most up-to-date measurements of $\alpha_e$ from the quasar absorption lines. It is found that the dipole direction points towards $(l,b)=(330.2^\circ\pm7.3^\circ,-13.0^\circ\pm5.6^\circ)$ in the galactic coordinates, and the anisotropic parameter is $b_0=(0.47\pm 0.09) \times10^{-5}$, which corresponds to a dipole amplitude $(7.2\pm 1.4)\times 10^{-8}$ at redshift $z=0.015$. This is well consistent with the upper limit of the variation of $\alpha_e$ measured in the Milky Way. We also fit our model to the Union2.1 type Ia supernovae, and find that the preferred direction of Union2.1 is well consistent with the dipole direction of $\alpha_e$., Comment: 11 pages, accepted by Chinese Physics C

We compare six models (including the baryonic model, two dark matter models, two modified Newtonian dynamics models and one modified gravity model) in accounting for the galaxy rotation curves. For the dark matter models, we assume NFW profile and core-modified profile for the dark halo, respectively. For the modified Newtonian dynamics models, we discuss Milgrom's MOND theory with two different interpolation functions, i.e. the standard and the simple interpolation functions. As for the modified gravity, we focus on Moffat's MSTG theory. We fit these models to the observed rotation curves of 9 high-surface brightness and 9 low-surface brightness galaxies. We apply the Bayesian Information Criterion and the Akaike Information Criterion to test the goodness-of-fit of each model. It is found that non of the six models can well fit all the galaxy rotation curves. Two galaxies can be best fitted by the baryonic model without involving the nonluminous dark matter. MOND can fit the largest number of galaxies, and only one galaxy can be best fitted by MSTG model. Core-modified model can well fit about one half LSB galaxies but no HSB galaxy, while NFW model can fit only a small fraction of HSB galaxies but no LSB galaxy. This may imply that the oversimplified NFW and Core-modified profiles couldn't well mimic the postulated dark matter halo., Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures

The statistical properties of the soft gamma repeater SGR J1550--5418 are investigated carefully. We find that the cumulative distributions of fluence, peak flux and duration can be well fitted by a bent power law, while the cumulative distribution of waiting time follows a simple power law. In particular, the probability density functions of fluctuations of fluence, peak flux, and duration have a sharp peak and fat tails, which can be well fitted by a $q$-Gaussian function. The $q$ values keep approximately steady for different scale intervals, indicating a scale-invariant structure of soft gamma repeaters. Those results support that the origin of soft gamma repeaters is crustquakes of neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

Linear polarization have been observed in both the prompt phase and afterglow of some bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Polarization in the prompt phase spans a wide range, and may be as high as $\gtrsim 50\%$. In the afterglow phase, however, it is usually below $10\%$. According to the standard fireball model, GRBs are produced by synchrotron radiation and Compton scattering process in a highly relativistic jet ejected from the central engine. It is widely accepted that prompt emissions occur in the internal shock when shells with different velocities collide with each other, and the magnetic field advected by the jet from the central engine can be ordered in large scale. On the other hand, afterglows are often assumed to occur in the external shock when the jet collides with interstellar medium, and the magnetic field produced by the shock through, e.g. Weibel instability, is possibly random. In this paper, we calculate the polarization properties of the synchrotron self-Compton process from a highly relativistic jet, in which the magnetic field is randomly distributed in the shock plane. We also consider the generalized situation where a uniform magnetic component perpendicular to the shock plane is superposed on the random magnetic component. We show that, the polarization is hardly to be larger than $10\%$ if the seed electrons are isotropic in the jet frame. This may account for the observed upper limit of polarization in the afterglow phase of GRBs. In addition, if the random and uniform magnetic components decay with time in different speeds, then the polarization angle may change $90^{\circ}$ duration the temporal evolution., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Chinese Physics C

It has been observed that photons in the prompt emission of some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are highly polarized. The high polarization is used by some authors to give a strict constraint on the Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). If the Lorentz invariance is broken, the polarization vector of a photon may rotate during its propagation. The rotation angle of polarization vector depends on both the photon energy and the distance of source. It is believed that if high polarization is observed, then the relative rotation angle (denoted by $\alpha$) of polarization vector of the highest energy photon with respect to that of the lowest energy photon should be no more than $\pi/2$. Otherwise, the net polarization will be severely suppressed, thus couldn't be as high as what was actually observed. In this paper, we will give a detailed calculation on the evolution of GRB polarization arising from LIV effect duration the propagation. It is shown that the polarization degree rapidly decrease as $\alpha$ increases, and reaches a local minimum at $\alpha\approx \pi$, then increases until $\alpha\approx 3\pi/2$, after that decreases again until $\alpha \approx 2\pi$, etc. The polarization degree as a function of $\alpha$ oscillates with a quasi-period $T\approx \pi$, while the oscillating amplitude gradually decreases to zero. Moreover, we find that a considerable amount (more than $60\%$ of the initial polarization) of polarization degree can be conserved when $\alpha\approx \pi/2$. The polarization observation in a higher and wider energy band, a softer photon spectrum, and a higher redshift GRB is favorable in order to tightly constrain LIV effect., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted by MNRAS

Einstein's equivalence principle (EEP) can be tested by the time delay between photons with different energies passing through a gravitational field. As one of the most energetic explosions in the Universe, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) provide an effective tool to test the accuracy of EEP. In this paper, we use the continuous spectra of 20 short GRBs detected by the Swift/BAT to test the validity of EEP. Taking the duration of GRBs as the upper limit of the time delay induced by EEP violation (assuming that the high energy photons arrive later than the low energy photons), the difference of the parameterized post-Newtonian parameter is constrained with high accuracy. The strictest constraint, $|\gamma(150~{\rm keV})-\gamma(15~{\rm keV})|<5.59\times 10^{-10}$ from GRB 150101B, is about $1\sim 2$ orders of magnitude tighter than previous constraints. Moreover, our result is more statistically significant than previous results because we use the continuous spectra instead of isolated photons., Comment: 4 pages, 1 table

We use two different methods, i.e., dipole-fitting (DF) and hemisphere comparison (HC), to search for the anisotropic signals hiding in the Union2.1 data set. We find that the directions of maximum matter density derived using these two methods are about $114^{\circ}$ away from each other. We construct four Union2.1-like mock samples to test the statistical significance of these two methods. It is shown that DF method is statistically significant, while HC method is strongly biased by the distribution of data points in the sky. Then we assume that the anisotropy of distance modulus is mainly induced by the anisotropy of matter density, which is modeled to be the dipole form $\Omega_M=\Omega_{M0}(1-\cos\theta)$. We fit our model to Union2.1, and find that the direction of maximum matter density is well consistent with the direction derived using DF method, but it is very different from the direction previously claimed. Monte Carlo simulations show that our method is statistically more significant than HC method, although it is not as significant as DF method. The statistical significance can be further improved if the data points are homogeneously distributed in the sky. Due to the low quality of present supernovae data, however, it is still premature to claim that the Universe has any preferred direction., Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, accepted by MNRAS

The spectra of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in a wide energy range can usually be well described by the Band function, which is a two smoothly jointed power laws cutting at a breaking energy. Below the breaking energy, the Band function reduces to a cut-off power law, while above the breaking energy it is a simple power law. However, for some detectors (such as the Swift-BAT) whose working energy is well below or just near the breaking energy, the observed spectra can be fitted to cut-off power law with enough precision. Besides, since the energy band of Swift-BAT is very narrow, the spectra of most GRBs can be fitted well even using a simple power law. In this paper, with the most up-to-date sample of Swift-BAT GRBs, we study the effect of different spectral models on the empirical luminosity correlations, and further investigate the effect on the reconstruction of GRB Hubble diagram. We mainly focus on two luminosity correlations, i.e., the Amati relation and Yonetoku relation. We calculate these two luminosity correlations on both the case that the GRB spectra are modeled by Band function and cut-off power law. It is found that both luminosity correlations only moderately depend on the choice of GRB spectra. Monte Carlo simulations show that Amati relation is insensitive to the high-energy power-law index of the Band function. As a result, the GRB Hubble diagram calibrated using luminosity correlations is almost independent on the GRB spectra., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables, accepted by MNRAS

In this paper, we study the homogeneity of the GRB distribution using a subsample of the Greiner GRB catalogue, which contains 314 objects with redshift $0

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are luminous enough to be detectable up to redshift $z\sim 10$. They are often proposed as complementary tools to type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in tracing the Hubble diagram of the Universe. The distance calibrations of GRBs usually make use one or some of the empirical luminosity correlations, such as $\tau_{\rm lag}-L$, $V-L$, $E_p-L$, $E_p-E_{\gamma}$, $\tau_{\rm RT}-L$ and $E_p-E_{\rm iso}$ relations. These calibrating methods are based on the underling assumption that the empirical luminosity correlations are universal over all redshift range. In this paper, we test the possible redshift dependence of six luminosity correlations by dividing GRBs into low-$z$ and high-$z$ classes according to their redshift smaller or larger than 1.4. It is shown that the $E_p-E_{\gamma}$ relation for low-$z$ GRBs is consistent with that for high-$z$ GRBs within $1\sigma$ uncertainty. The intrinsic scatter of $V-L$ relation is too larger to make a convincing conclusion. For the rest four correlations, however, low-$z$ GRBs differ from high-$z$ GRBs at more than $3\sigma$ confidence level. As such, we calibrate GRBs using the $E_p-E_{\gamma}$ relation in a model-independent way. The constraint of high-$z$ GRBs on the $\Lambda$CDM model gives $\Omega_M=0.302\pm 0.142(1\sigma)$, well consistent with the Planck 2015 results., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables

In this paper, we examine the spacial distribution of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using a sample of 373 objects. We subdivide the GRB data into two redshift intervals over the redshift range $0

In quantum gravity, a foamy structure of space-time leads to Lorentz invariance violation (LIV). As the most energetic astrophysical processes in the Universe, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) provide an effective way to probe quantum gravity effects. We use continuous spectra of 20 short GRBs detected by the Swift satellite to give a conservative lower limit of quantum gravity energy scale $M_\textrm{QG} $. Due to the LIV effect, photons with different energy have different velocities. This will lead to the delayed arrival of high energy photons relative to the low energy ones. Based on the fact that the LIV-induced time delay can't be longer than the duration of a GRB, we present the most conservative estimation of the quantum gravity energy scales from 20 short GRBs. The most strict constraint, $M_\textrm{QG}>5.05\times10^{14}$ GeV, is from GRB 140622A., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, 1 table; Submitted to Chinese Physics C

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are widely proposed as an effective probe to trace the Hubble diagram of the Universe in high redshift range. However, the calibration of GRBs is not as easy as that of type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Most calibrating methods at present make use one or some of the empirical luminosity correlations, e.g., Amati relation. One of the underlying assumptions of these calibrating methods is that the empirical correlation is universal over all redshifts. In this paper, we check to what extent this assumption holds. Assuming that SNe Ia exactly trace the Hubble diagram of the Universe, we re-investigate the Amati relation for low redshift ($z<1.4$) and high redshift ($z>1.4$) GRBs, respectively. It is found that the Amati relation of low-$z$ GRBs differs from that of high-$z$ GRBs at more than $3\sigma$ confidence level. This result is insensitive to cosmological models. We should be cautious when using Amati relation to reconstruct the Hubble diagram of the Universe., Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables

We probe the possible anisotropy of the Universe by using the JLA compilation of type-Ia supernovae. We apply the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method to constrain the amplitude and direction of anisotropy in three cosmological models. For the dipole-modulated $\Lambda$CDM model, the anisotropic amplitude is consistent with zero at $68\%$ C.L., and has an upper bound $A_D<1.98\times10^{-3}$ at $95\%$ C.L. Regardless of much larger uncertainty, we find the dipole direction of JLA is amazingly opposite to that of Union2. Similar results are found for the dipole-modulated $w$CDM and CPL models. Thus, the Universe is still well consistent with the isotropy according to the JLA compilation., Comment: 5 pages, twocolumns. 1 table, 4 figures. Major revisions. Accepted by MNRAS. Thanks for useful comments and suggestions from Prof. Perivolaropoulos

We propose a Finsler spacetime scenario of the anisotropic universe. The Finslerian universe requires both the fine-structure constant and accelerating cosmic expansion have dipole structure, and the directions of these two dipoles are the same. Our numerical results show that the dipole direction of SnIa Hubble diagram locates at $(l,b)=(314.6^\circ\pm20.3^\circ,-11.5^\circ\pm12.1^\circ)$ with magnitude $B=(-3.60\pm1.66)\times10^{-2}$. And the dipole direction of the fine-structure constant locates at $(l,b)=(333.2^\circ\pm8.8^\circ,-12.7^\circ\pm6.3^\circ)$ with magnitude $B=(0.97\pm0.21)\times10^{-5}$. The angular separation between the two dipole directions is about $18.2^\circ$., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

Under the steady state condition, the spectrum of electrons is investigated by solving the continuity equation under the complex radiation of both the synchrotron and Compton processes. The resulted GRB spectrum is a broken power law in both the fast and slow cooling phases. On the basis of this electron spectrum, the spectral indices of the Band function in four different phases are presented. In the complex radiation frame, the detail investigation on physical parameters reveals that both the reverse shock photosphere model and the forward shock with strong coupling model can answer the $\alpha \sim -1$ problem. A possible marginal to fast cooling phase transition in GRB 080916C is discussed. The time resolved spectra in different pulses of GRB 100724B, GRB 100826A and GRB 130606B are investigated. We found that the flux is proportional to the peak energy in almost all pulses. The phases for different pulses are determined according to the spectral index revolution. We found the strong correlations between spectral indices and the peak energy in GRB 100826A, which can be explained by the Compton effect in the fast cooling phase. However, the complex scenario predicts a steeper index for the injected electrons, which challenges the acceleration mechanism in GRBs., Comment: 32pages, 11 figures

Type-Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are often used as the standard candles to probe the anisotropic expansion of the Universe. In this paper, we make a comprehensive comparison between the hemisphere comparison (HC) method and dipole-fitting (DF) method in searching for the cosmological preferred direction using the Union2 dataset, a compilation of 557 well-calibrated SNe Ia. We find that the directions of the faintest SNe Ia derived from these two methods are approximately opposite. Monte Carlo simulations show that the results of the HC method strongly depend on the distribution of the data points in the sky. The coincidence that the HC method and DF method give two completely opposite directions may be due to the extremely nonuniform distribution of the Union2 dataset., Comment: 10 pages, 6figures, to appear in MNRAS

The high polarization observed in the prompt phase of some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) arouses extensive studies on the emission mechanism. In this paper, we investigate the polarization properties of the synchrotron-self-Compton (SSC) process from a highly relativistic jet. A magnetic-dominated, baryon-loaded jet ejected from the central engine travels with a large Lorentz factor. Shells with slightly different velocities collide with each other and produce shocks. The shocks accelerate electrons to power-law distribution, and at the same time, magnify the magnetic field. Electrons move in the magnetic field and produce synchrotron photons. The synchrotron photons suffer from the Compton scattering (CS) process and then are detected by an observer locating slightly off-axis. We derive analytically the formulae of photon polarization in the SSC process in two magnetic configurations: magnetic field in the shock plane and perpendicular to the shock plane. We show that photons induced by the SSC process can be highly polarized, with the maximum polarization $\Pi \sim 24\%$ in the energy band $[0.5,5]$ MeV. The polarization depends on the viewing angles, peaking in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. In the energy band $[0.05,0.5]$ MeV, in which most $\gamma$-ray polarimeters are active, the polarization is about twice of that in the Thomson limit, reaching to $\Pi\sim 20\%$. This implies that the Klein-Nishina effect, which is often neglected in literatures, should be carefully considered., Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures

Recently, an anisotropic cosmological model was proposed. An arbitrary 1-form, which picks out a privileged axis in the universe, was added to the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker line element. The distance-redshift relation was modified such that it is direction dependent. In this paper, we use the Union2 dataset and 59 high-redshift gamma-ray bursts to give constraints on the anisotropy of the universe. The results show that the magnitude of anisotropy is about $D=-0.044\pm0.018$, and the privileged axis points towards the direction $(l_0,b_0)=(306.1^{\circ}\pm 18.7^{\circ},-18.2^{\circ}\pm 11.2^{\circ})$ in the galactic coordinate system. The anisotropy is small and the isotropic cosmological model is an excellent approximation., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures