Photon Acceleration at Shock Breakout of Trans-Relativistic Supernova
Abstract
The predicted thermal flash from SN shock breakout might have been detected for the first time by Swift in GRB 060218/SN 2006aj. The detected thermal X-ray emission in this event implies emergence of a trans-relativistic (TR) SN shock with kinetic energy of E_k>1E49 erg. During TRSN shock breakout, the thermal photons could be "accelerated" by the shock through repeated bulk Compton scattering, forming a nonthermal gamma/X-ray component with dominant energy over thermal one. This mechanism of "photon acceleration" at TRSN shock breakout might also account for gamma-rays in the other similar low-luminosity GRBs, implying that they are atypical GRBs with only TR outflows. TRSNe form a peculiar type of SNe with large kinetic energy, >1E49 erg, in TR ejecta, \Gamma\beta ~2.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0705.3958,
title = {Photon Acceleration at Shock Breakout of Trans-Relativistic Supernova},
author = {Zhuo Li and Xiang-Yu Wang and Eli Waxman and Peter Meszaros},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0705.3958},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figs, talk at Amsterdam 2007 GRB meeting. No figs in the version for the proceedings "070228: The Next Decade of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows", eds. Wijers, R.A.M.J., Kaper, L, and van Eerten, H.J., Elsevier (Amsterdam)