Related papers: Gammaless GRBs?
The GRB 991216 and its relevant data acquired from the BATSE experiment and RXTE and Chandra satellites are used as a prototypical case to test the theory linking the origin of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) to the process of vacuum polarization…
For a few seconds a gamma-ray burst (GRB) becomes the brightest object in the Universe, over-shining the rest of the Universe combined! Clearly this reflects extreme conditions that are fascinating and worth exploring. The recent discovery…
The composition of relativistic outflows producing gamma-ray bursts is a long standing open question. One of the main arguments in favor of magnetically dominated outflows is the absence of photospheric component in their broadband time…
The supranova model for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has recently gained popularity. In this scenario the GRB occurs weeks to years after a supernova explosion, and is located inside a pulsar wind bubble (PWB). High energy protons from the PWB…
For a sample of Swift and Fermi GRBs, we show that the minimum variability timescale and the spectral lag of the prompt emission is related to the bulk Lorentz factor in a complex manner: For small $\Gamma$'s, the variability timescale…
The essence of the ``Supercritical Pile'' model is a process for converting the energy stored in the relativistic protons of a Relativistic Blast Wave (RBW) of Lorentz factor $\Gamma$ into electron -- positron pairs of similar Lorentz…
Gamma Ray Bursts as recent GRB990123 and GRB990510 are observed to occur in cosmic volumes with a corresponding output reaching, for isotropic explosions, energies as large as two solar masses annihilation. These energies are underestimated…
Lorentz invariance violations (LIV) can yield vacuum birefringence, which results in an energy-dependent rotation of the polarization vector of linearly polarized emission from astrophysical sources. It is believed that if the relative…
We simulate neutrino production in a gamma-ray burst (GRB) with the most detailed method to date. We show that the highest energy neutrinos from GRBs mainly come from kaons. Although there is little chance to detect such neutrinos, attempts…
As powerful gamma-ray engines, blazars -- relativistic plasma jets launched toward Earth from active galactic nuclei -- are manifestly high-energy particle accelerators. Yet, exactly how these jets accelerate particles as well as what they…
The mystery of where and how Nature accelerates the cosmic rays is still unresolved a century after their discovery. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been proposed as one of the more plausible sources of extragalactic cosmic rays. A positive…
Detailed information on the physical parameters in the sources of cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) is obtained from few plausible assumptions consistent with observations. Model-independent requirements posed by these assumptions on the…
In quantum theory of gravity, we expect the Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) and the modification of the dispersion relation between energy and momentum for photons. The effect of the energy-dependent velocity due to the modified…
Recent detections of GeV photons in a few GRBs by Fermi-LAT have led to strong constraints on the bulk Lorentz factor in GRB outflows. To avoid a large gamma-gamma optical depth, minimum values of the Lorentz factor have been estimated to…
Heavy nuclei can be synthetized or entrained in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with implications on the high-energy neutrino emission. By means of a Monte-Carlo algorithm, we model nuclear cascades and investigate their impact on the neutrino…
We discuss the implications of Fermi/LAT observations on several aspects of gamma-ray burst (GRB) physics, including the radiation process, the emission sites, the bulk Lorentz factor, and the pre-shock magnetic field: (1) MeV-range…
Over the past few decades impressive progress has been made in the field of photon polarimetry, especially in the hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray energy regime. Measurements of the linear degree of polarization for some of the most energetic…
Relativistic outflows with neutrons inevitably lead to inelastic collisions, and resulting subphotospheric gamma rays may explain prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts. In this model, hadronuclear, quasithermal neutrinos in the 10-100 GeV…
Cosmic sources of gamma-ray radiation in the GeV range are often characterized by violent variability, in particular this concerns blazars, gamma-ray bursts, and the pulsar wind nebula Crab. Such gamma-ray emission requires a very efficient…
We suggest that neutron star mergers eject an ultra-relativistic envelope of mass $m\sim 10^{-7}M_\odot$, which helps explain the gamma-ray burst from GW170817. One ejection mechanism is the ablation of the neutron star surface by the burst…