Redshift Identifiability from Gamma-Ray Burst Prompt Emission

Abstract

We examine which prompt-emission observables of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) carry identifiable redshift information in realistic structured-jet scenarios. By examining the photon-level Lorentz and cosmological transformations, we demonstrate any spectral observable reflecting the dominant-patch emission and any temporal observable reflecting the co-moving frame physics in the jet suffers from the same $z$-$θ_v$ degeneracy. The observable reflecting the absolute flux or count rate will also suffer from this $z$-$θ_v$ degeneracy in a different form. Due to the large variation of the intrinsic luminosity, combining the observables in the above-mentioned three classes cannot break this degeneracy. However, we demonstrate that two other classes of observables contain the potential to break this degeneracy: (i)~central engine-imprinted time scales, (ii)~emission from out of the dominant patch.