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GRB Spikes Could Resolve Stars

Astrophysics 2009-10-30 v1

Abstract

GRBs vary more rapidly than any other known cosmological phenomena. The lower limits of this variability have not yet been explored. Improvements in detectors would reveal or limit the actual rate of short GRBs. Were microsecond "spike" GRBs to exist and be detectable, they would time-resolve stellar mass objects throughout the universe by their gravitational microlensing effect. Analyzing the time structure of sufficient numbers of GRB spikes would reveal or limit Ωstar\Omega_{star}, ΩMACHO\Omega_{MACHO}, and/or Ωbaryon\Omega_{baryon}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9712172,
  title  = {GRB Spikes Could Resolve Stars},
  author = {Robert J. Nemiroff and Jay P. Norris and Jerry T. Bonnell and Gabriela F. Marani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9712172},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

18 pages, 2 figures, in press: ApJ (Letters)

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