Testing a new luminosity/redshift indicator for $\gamma$-ray bursts

Abstract

We have tested a relative spectral lag (RSL) method suggested earlier as a luminosity/redshift (or distance) estimator, using the generalized method by Schaefer & Collazzi. We find the derivations from the luminosity/redshift-RSL (L/R-RSL) relation are comparable with the corresponding observations. Applying the luminosity-RSL relation to two different GRB samples, we find that there exist no violators from the generalized test, namely the Nakar & Piran test and Li test. We also find that about 36 per cent of Schaefer's sample are outliers for the L/R-RSL relation within 1$\sigma$ confidence level, but no violators at 3$\sigma$ level within the current precision of L/R-RSL relation. An analysis of several potential outliers for other luminosity relations shows they can match the L/R-RSL relation well within an acceptable uncertainty. All the coincident results seem to suggest that this relation could be a potential tool for cosmological study.