Related papers: GRB Cosmology and Self-organized Criticality in GR…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the universe's most energetic phenomena (isotropic luminosity $\sim 10^{51} - 10^{54}$ ergs/s) lasting for a very short duration ($\sim$ milliseconds - a few seconds). Even after an average of one GRB detected…
The discovery by Swift that a good fraction of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) have a slowly decaying X-ray afterglow phase led to the suggestion that energy injection into the blast wave takes place several hundred seconds after the burst. This…
If the efficiency for producing $\gamma$-rays is the same in short duration ($\siml 2$ s) Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) as in long duration GRBs, then the average kinetic energy of short GRBs must be $\sim 20$ times less than that of long GRBs.…
Past studies suggest that long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have a standard energy of E_gamma ~ 10^51 erg in ultra-relativistic ejecta when corrected for asymmetry ("jets"). However, recently a group of sub-energetic bursts, including…
The 'jet-break' in the X-ray afterglow of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) appears to be correlated to other properties of the X-ray afterglow and the prompt gamma ray emission, but the correlations are at odds with those predicted by the conical…
We severely criticize the consuetudinary analysis of the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the conical-ejection fireball scenarios. We argue that, instead, recent observations imply that the long-duration GRBs and their afterglows…
One of the most impressive recent discovery of SWIFT is the evidence that X-ray flares occurring during the GRB afterglows are quite common, being observed in roughly 50% of the afterglows. These X-ray flares range fluences comparable with…
Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) collimation has been inferred with the observations of achromatic steepening in GRB light curves, known as jet breaks. Identifying a jet break from a GRB afterglow lightcurve allows a measurement of the jet opening…
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…
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…
Fireballs are huge isotropic explosions models widely believed to explain Gamma Ray Burst, GRBs (Piran,1999); ever-new versions consider wide beamed (10^o) Jet explosions hitting external shells. On the contrary, since 1994-1998, we argued…
It has recently been proposed that ultrahigh energy ($\gtrsim 10^{19}$ eV) cosmic rays (UHECRs) are accelerated by the blast waves associated with GRBs. We calculate the observed synchrotron radiation spectrum from protons and energetic…
Due to their highly luminous nature, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are useful tools in studying the early Universe (up to z = 10). We consider whether the available subset of Swift high redshift GRBs are unusual when compared to analogous…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe. How efficiently the jet converts its energy to radiation is a long-standing problem and it is poorly constrained. The standard model invokes a relativistic fireball…
We propose that a nearby gamma-ray burst (GRB) or GRB-like (old, single and short-lived) pulsar/supernova remnant/microquasar about 10^{5-6} years ago may be responsible for the excesses of cosmic-ray positrons and electrons recently…
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…
A plateau phase in the X-ray afterglow is observed in a significant fraction of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Previously, it has been found that there exists a correlation among three key parameters concerning the plateau phase, i.e., the end…
The discovery of GRBs' afterglows has allowed us to establish several facts: their distance and energy scales, the fact that they are due to explosions, that the explosions are relativistic, and that the afterglow emission mechanism is…
As one of the most energetic and brightest events, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been used as a standard candle for cosmological probe. Based on the relevant features of GRBs light curves, a plateau phase followed a decay phase, we obtain…
Gamma-ray bursts are known to be sources of high-energy gamma rays, and are likely to be sources of high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos. Following a short review of observations of GRBs at multi-MeV energies and above, the physics of…