Delay of emission from extragalactic gamma-ray burst sources as a test for selecting a model of the universe

We obtained an order-of-magnitude estimate for the dispersion of light caused by the effect of quantum fluctuations on the propagation of electromagnetic waves in four-dimensional spacetime. We calculated the delay of the photons from cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for the flat, open, and closed cosmological models. This delay is attributable to the effect of expansion of the Universe on the propagation of a dispersive light wave in space. Analysis shows that the delay of GRB photons contains a regular component related to the expansion of the Universe. We conclude that cosmological models of the Universe can be selected by the delay of emission of various energies from GRBs; the accuracy of measuring the parameter Deltat/DeltaEgamma must be no lower than 10(-6) s MeV-1. (C) 2003 MAIK "Nauka/lnterperiodica".