Related papers: What do we know about gamma-ray bursts?
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are luminous stellar explosions characterized by the ejection of relativistic jets. This work proposes a novel paradigm to study these GRB jets. By analyzing the timing information of prompt pulses and X-ray flares,…
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…
We assume that internal shocks of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) consist of multiple sub-jets with a collimation half-angle $\sim {\rm several }\times\gamma_i^{-1}$, where $\gamma_i$ is the Lorenz factor of each sub-jet. If by chance a sub-jet is…
Gamma ray bursts (GRB's) often feature subpulses that have a distinctively asymmetric profile -- they rise quickly and decay much more slowly, while their spectrum softens slightly with observer time. It is suggested that these subpulses…
Gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows are thought to be produced by an ultrarelativistic jet. One of the most important open questions is the outflow composition: the energy may be carried out from the central source either as kinetic…
The idea that gamma-ray bursts might be a kind of phenomena associated with neutron star kicks was first proposed by Dar & Plaga (1999). Here we study this mechanism in more detail and point out that the neutron star should be a high speed…
If gamma ray bursts are highly collimated, the energy requirements of each event may be reduced by several (~ 4-6) orders of magnitude, and the event rate increased correspondingly. Extreme conditions in gamma ray bursters lead to highly…
There are several lines of evidence which suggest that the relativistic outflows in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are collimated into narrow jets. The jet structure has important implications for the true energy release and the event rate of…
The deaths of massive stars are sometimes accompanied by the launch of highly relativistic and collimated jets. If the jet is pointed towards Earth, we observe a "prompt" gamma-ray burst due to internal shocks or magnetic reconnection…
I describe electromagnetic model of gamma ray bursts and contrast its main properties and predictions with hydrodynamic fireball model and its magnetohydrodynamical extension. The electromagnetic model assumes that rotational energy of a…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have puzzled astronomers since their accidental discovery in the sixties. The BATSE detector on the COMPTON-GRO satellite has been detecting one burst per day for the last six years. Its findings have revolutionized…
Recent observations suggest that the long-duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows are produced by highly relativistic jets emitted in supernova explosions. We propose that the result of the event is not just a compact object…
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…
There are about 2000 gamma ray burst (GRB) events known to us with data pouring in at the rate of one per day. While the afterglows of GRBs in radio, optical and X-ray bands are successfully explained by the fireball model, a significant…
Active galactic nuclei, hosting supermassive black holes and launching relativistic jets, are the most numerous objects on the gamma-ray sky. At the other end of the mass scale, phenomena related to stellar mass black holes, in particular…
The motions of comets and neutron stars have been integrated over five billion years in the Galactic potential to determine a gamma-ray burst distribution, presuming that bursts are the result of interactions between these two families of…
The origin of gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission, bursts of gamma-rays lasting from shorter than one second to thousands of seconds, remains not fully understood after more than 40 years of observations. The uncertainties lie in several…
The central engine of Gamma Ray Bursts may live much longer than the duration of the prompt emission. Some evidence of it comes from the presence of strong precursors, post-cursors, and X-ray flares in a sizable fraction of bursts.…
The central engine of short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) is hidden from direct view, operating at a scale much smaller than that probed by the emitted radiation. Thus we must infer its origin not only with respect to the formation of the {\it…
We numerically analyze the evolution of a long-duration gamma-ray burst jet as it leaves the progenitor star and propagates to the photospheric radius, where radiation can be released. We find that the interaction of the relativistic…