Related papers: Long lived central engines in Gamma Ray Bursts
We call "prompt" emission of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) the erratic and violent phase of hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission, usually lasting for tens of seconds in long GRBs. However, the central engine of GRBs may live much longer.…
We propose that the flat decay phase in the first 100-10,000 seconds of the X-ray light curve of Gamma Ray Bursts can be interpreted as prolonged activity of the central engine, producing shells of decreasing bulk Lorentz factors Gamma. The…
The flat decay phase in the first 1e2-1e4 seconds of the X-ray light curve of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) has not yet found a convincing explanation. The fact that the optical and X-ray lightcurves are often different, with breaks at different…
We selected a sample of 33 Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) detected by Swift, with known redshift and optical extinction at the host frame. For these, we constructed the de-absorbed and K-corrected X-ray and optical rest frame light curves. These…
The study of the early high-energy emission from both long and short Gamma-ray bursts has been revolutionized by the Swift mission. The rapid response of Swift shows that the non-thermal X-ray emission transitions smoothly from the prompt…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, characterized by prompt gamma-ray emission followed by multiwavelength afterglows. X-ray flares, observed during the afterglow phase, are generally believed to…
With its rapid response, {\it Swift} has revealed plenty of unexpected properties of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). With an abundance of observations, our current understanding is only limited by complexity of early X-ray light curves. In this…
Gamma-ray bursts are known to display various features on top of their canonical behavior. In this short review, we will describe and discuss two of them: the ultra-long gamma-ray bursts, which are defined by an extreme duration of their…
Within the framework of the internal-external shocks model for gamma-ray bursts, we study the various mechanisms that can give rise to quiescent times in the observed gamma-ray light-curves. In particular, we look for the signatures that…
The X-ray light curves of hundreds of bursts are now available, thanks to the X-ray Telescope on board the Swift satellite, on time scales from ~1 minute up to weeks and in some cases months from the burst explosion. These data allow us to…
We study the early afterglows of gamma-ray bursts produced by geometrically thick fireballs, following the development of the external shock as energy is continually supplied to the shocked material. We study the dependence of the early…
We present the analysis of a large sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) X-ray light curves in the rest frame to characterise their intrinsic properties in the context of different theoretical scenarios. We determine the morphology, time scales,…
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) X-ray light curves exhibit a variety of complex temporal structures, such as flares and plateaus. The origin of flares seen in many GRB early afterglows is still uncertain. Here, we analyze a sample of 89 GRBs, 61 of…
(Abridged) The Swift X-Ray Telescope (XRT) reveals some interesting features of early X-ray afterglows, including a distinct rapidly decaying component preceding the conventional afterglow component in many sources, a shallow decay…
The early steep decay, a rapid decrease in X-ray flux as a function of time following the prompt emission, is a robust feature seen in almost all gamma-ray bursts with early enough X-ray observations. This peculiar phenomenon has often been…
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows have provided important clues to the nature of these massive explosive events, providing direct information on the nearby environment and indirect information on the central engine that powers the burst. We…
The two-component emission model to explain the plateau phase of the X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is proposed. One component, which is responsible for the plateau and subsequent normal decay phase of the X-ray afterglow, is…
When a massive star explodes as a Gamma Ray Burst information about this explosion is retained in the properties of the prompt and afterglow emission. We report on new relationships between the prompt and X-ray afterglow emission of…
The early X-ray afterglow of gamma-ray bursts revealed by Swift carried many surprises. We focus in this paper on the plateau phase whose origin remains highly debated. We confront several newly discovered correlations between prompt and…
Four years after the launch the Swift satellite the nature of the Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) broadband afterglow behaviour is still an open issue ad the standard external shock fireball models cannot easily explain the puzzling combined…