Spheroidal Resampling Analysis of High-Redshift Gamma-Ray Burst Spatial Densities
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bright transient sources that can be observed at high redshift. They can therefore be used as tracers of the distant large-scale structure, although the GRB redshift sample is sparse and affected by strong selection effects. We analyze the three-dimensional distribution of 542 GRBs with spectroscopic redshifts. The method extends our earlier spherical-window search by replacing spherical counting volumes with axisymmetric spheroids. The angular positions of the observed GRBs are kept fixed in the Monte-Carlo null samples, while the redshifts are shuffled within each Galactic hemisphere. In the Northern Galactic hemisphere, the overdensity associated with the Hercules--Corona Borealis Great Wall remains significant for a range of spheroidal shapes. This supports the stability of the previously reported signal and shows that it is not only a consequence of using spherical counting volumes. In the Southern Galactic hemisphere, the same method finds no structure with comparable significance. A small candidate grouping is present, but its significance is only marginal, and it is sensitive to the small number of events. We conclude that spheroidal resampling is a useful check of GRB overdensity searches, but the physical nature of any candidate structure still requires confirmation with independent tracers such as galaxy or quasar samples.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{horvath2026spheroidal,
title = {{Spheroidal Resampling Analysis of High-Redshift Gamma-Ray Burst Spatial Densities}},
author = {Istvan Horvath and Zsolt Bagoly and Lajos G. Balazs and Jon Hakkila and Janos Horvath and Sandor Pinter and Istvan I. Racz and Peter Veres and Bendeguz Koncz},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.29687},
eprint = {2608.29687},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29687},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Spheroidal Resampling Analysis of High-Redshift Gamma-Ray Burst Spatial Densities
AU - Istvan Horvath
AU - Zsolt Bagoly
AU - Lajos G. Balazs
AU - Jon Hakkila
AU - Janos Horvath
AU - Sandor Pinter
AU - Istvan I. Racz
AU - Peter Veres
AU - Bendeguz Koncz
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/30
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.29687
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.29687
AB - Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are bright transient sources that can be observed at high redshift. They can therefore be used as tracers of the distant large-scale structure, although the GRB redshift sample is sparse and affected by strong selection effects. We analyze the three-dimensional distribution of 542 GRBs with spectroscopic redshifts. The method extends our earlier spherical-window search by replacing spherical counting volumes with axisymmetric spheroids. The angular positions of the observed GRBs are kept fixed in the Monte-Carlo null samples, while the redshifts are shuffled within each Galactic hemisphere. In the Northern Galactic hemisphere, the overdensity associated with the Hercules--Corona Borealis Great Wall remains significant for a range of spheroidal shapes. This supports the stability of the previously reported signal and shows that it is not only a consequence of using spherical counting volumes. In the Southern Galactic hemisphere, the same method finds no structure with comparable significance. A small candidate grouping is present, but its significance is only marginal, and it is sensitive to the small number of events. We conclude that spheroidal resampling is a useful check of GRB overdensity searches, but the physical nature of any candidate structure still requires confirmation with independent tracers such as galaxy or quasar samples.
ER -