On the Efficiency of Internal Shocks in Gamma-Ray Bursts
Astrophysics
2009-10-31 v1
Abstract
The fraction of a fireball kinetic kinetic energy that can be radiated away by internal shocks is sensitive to the amplitude of initial fluctuations in the fireball. We give a simple analytical description for dissipation of modest-amplitude fluctuations and confirm it with direct numerical simulations. At high amplitudes, the dissipation occurs in a non-linear regime with efficiency approaching 100 %. Most of the explosion energy is then radiated away by the prompt GRB and only a fraction remains to be radiated by the afterglow.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0004360,
title = {On the Efficiency of Internal Shocks in Gamma-Ray Bursts},
author = {Andrei M. Beloborodov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0004360},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
submitted to ApJ Letters