Gamma Ray Burst Central Engines
Abstract
I review aspects of the theory of long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) central engines. I focus on the requirements of any model; these include the angular momentum of the progenitor, the power, Lorentz factor, asymmetry, and duration of the flow, and both the association and the non-association with bright supernovae. I compare and contrast the collapsar and millisecond proto-magnetar models in light of these requirements. The ability of the latter model to produce a flow with Lorentz factor ~100 while simultaneously maintaining a kinetic luminosity of ~10^50 ergs/s for a timescale of ~10-100 s is emphasized.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0807.0747,
title = {Gamma Ray Burst Central Engines},
author = {Todd A. Thompson},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.0747},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
6 pages; proceedings for "Gamma-Ray Bursts 2007," Santa Fe, New Mexico, November 5-9; edited by M. Galassi, D. Palmer, and E. Fenimore