Related papers: Low angular momentum accretion in the collapsar: h…
A large fraction of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) displays an X-ray plateau phase within <10^{5} s from the prompt emission, proposed to be powered by the spin-down energy of a rapidly spinning newly born magnetar. In this work we use the…
The plateau in the duration distribution of long Gamma-Ray Bursts (LGRBs) provides a direct observational evidence for the Collapsar model. The plateau reflects the fact that the observed duration satisfies: $T_{90} = t_{e}-t_{b}$ where…
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to come from the core-collapse of Wolf-Rayet stars. Whereas their stellar masses $M_*$ have a rather narrow distribution, the population of GRBs is very diverse, with gamma-ray luminosities…
Long Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are produced by ultra-relativistic jets launched from core collapse of massive stars. Most massive stars form in binaries and/or in star clusters, which means that there may be a significant external photon…
Ultra-long Gamma-Ray Bursts are a class of high energy transients lasting several hours. Their exact nature is still elusive, and several models have been proposed to explain them. Because of the limited coverage of wide field gamma-ray…
The various possibilities for the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) manifest in differing observable properties. Through deep spectroscopic and high-resolution imaging observations of some GRB hosts, I demonstrate that well-localized…
A wide range of mechanisms have been proposed to supply the energy for gamma-ray bursts (GRB) at cosmological distances. It is a common misconception that some of these, notably NS-NS mergers, cannot meet the energy requirements suggested…
We consider a scenario for the longest duration gamma ray bursts, resulting from the collapse of a massive rotating star in a close binary system with a companion black hole. The primary black hole born during the core collapse is first…
The energy source has remained to be the great mystery in understanding of the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) if the events are placed at cosmological distances as indicated by a number of recent observations. The currently popular models include…
We present the distribution of the intrinsic duration of gamma-ray bursts' prompt emission. This expands upon the analysis of Bromberg et al., 2012 and Bromberg et al. 2013 who showed evidence for collapsar progenitors based on the presence…
Early-time X-ray observations of GRBs with the Swift satellite have revealed a more complicated phenomenology than was known before. In particular, the presence of flaring activity on a wide range of time scales probably requires late-time…
We investigate the explosion of stars with zero-age main-sequence masses between 20 and 35 solar masses and varying degrees of rotation and magnetic fields including ones commonly considered progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The…
Long Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) originate from the collapse of massive, rotating stars. We aim to model the process of stellar collapse in the scenario of a self-gravitating collapsing star. We account for the changes in Kerr metric induced by…
The favoured progenitors of long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. However, most Galactic WR stars are slow rotators, as stellar winds are thought to remove angular momentum. This poses a challenge…
Flares in the X-ray afterglow of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) share more characteristics with the prompt emission than the afterglow, such as pulse profile and contained fluence. As a result, they are believed to originate from late-time…
For the collapsar scenario to be effective in the production of Gamma Ray Bursts, the infalling star's angular momentum $J(r)$ must be larger than the critical angular momentum needed to form an accretion disk around a blackhole (BH),…
We consider accretion onto newborn black holes following the collapse of rotating massive stellar cores, at the threshold where a centrifugally supported disk gives way to nearly radial inflow for low angular momentum. For realistic initial…
Over the past five years evidence has mounted that long-duration (> 2 s) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)--the most brilliant of all astronomical explosions--signal the collapse of massive stars in our Universe. This evidence was originally based on…
Motivated by GW170817 we examine constraints that observations put on the angular structure of long gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets. First, the relatively narrow observed distribution of $E_{X}/E_{\gamma}$ (the isotropic equivalent early X-ray…
The collapsar model requires rapidly rotating Wolf-Rayet stars as progenitors of long gamma-ray bursts. However, Galactic Wolf-Rayet stars rapidly lose angular momentum due to their intense stellar winds. We investigate whether the tidal…