The project aims to provide a complete catalog of all the information of the jet opening angles for Gamma Ray Bursts computed or inferred in literature so far.
Gamma Ray Bursts are the most explosive phenomenon in the Universe and they are among the farthest objects ever observed.
Thus, being so luminous can be seen at very large distances. The main goal of the project would be to use them as standard candles, objects whose luminosity is known or can be derived through already known relations.
The problem is that GRBs are far from being standard candles, since their luminosity span in a very wide range and the modern challenge is to understand if they can be used as standard candles the same way the supernovae Ia has been used. GRB correlations can be used in order to achieve this goal. However, the large scatter in correlations have prevented from obtaining yet standard candles. Great efforts have been made recently with the discovery of a 3D correlation http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.06840.
The question is whether the jet opening angle can be a key relevant parameter in obtaining tighter correlations. The jet angles in order to be measured need to be observed in several wavelengths at the same time. This is a problematic task, thus the need of a collection of a complete catalog can be of great use for the GRB community. Observations suggest significant variation in the jet angle from between 2 and 20 degrees, but studies have been carried out that states that low luminous GRBs have opening angles wider than 31 degrees, thus a careful search in literature is needed in order to distinguish between possible different categories of GRBs.
The use of these angles will be a reference for new statistical analysis, they can implemented for adding additional parameters in GRB correlations and to better understand theoretical modelling of Gamma Ray Bursts.
The project aim is to publish this catalog in a peer review journal together with the statistical analysis associated. Students interested in embarking this project for their bachelor or master thesis or PhD students are very welcome to take part to the all science project and contribute to write also the paper.