Gamma-Ray Burst Early Afterglows
Abstract
The successful launch and operation of NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer open a new era for the multi-wavelength study of the very early afterglow phase of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRB early afterglow information is essential to explore the unknown physical composition of GRB jets, the link between the prompt gamma-ray emission and the afterglow emission, the GRB central engine activity, as well as the immediate GRB environment. Here I review some of the recent theoretical efforts to address these problems and describe how the latest Swift data give answers to these outstanding questions.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0509571,
title = {Gamma-Ray Burst Early Afterglows},
author = {Bing Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0509571},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Proc. of "Astrophysics Sources of High Energy Particles and Radiation" (eds. T. Bulik, G. Madejski and B. Rudak), Torun, Poland, 20-24 June, 2005