Related papers: Gamma-Ray Burst Optical Afterglows with Two-Compon…
Recently, X-ray emission lines have been observed in X-ray afterglows of several $\gamma$-ray bursts. It is a major breakthrough for understanding the nature of the progenitors. It is proposed that the X-ray emission lines can be well…
Likely progenitors for the GRBs (gamma-ray bursts) are the mergers of compact objects or the explosions of massive stars. These two cases have distinctive environments for the GRB afterglow: the compact object explosions occur in the ISM…
According to popular progenitor models of gamma-ray bursts, twin jets should be launched by the central engine, with a forward jet moving toward the observer and a receding jet (or the counter jet) moving backwardly. However, in calculating…
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are likely produced in the shock that is driven as the GRB jet interacts with the external medium. Long-duration GRBs are also associated with powerful supernovae (SNe). We consider the optical and radio…
Achromatic breaks in afterglow light curves of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) arise naturally if the product of the jet's Lorentz factor \gamma and opening angle \Theta_j satisfies (\gamma \Theta_j) >> 1 at the onset of the afterglow phase, i.e.,…
In a recent paper, Rol and colleagues present evidence for a variable polarization in the optical afterglow following the gamma-ray burst GRB 990712. The variation is highly significant, but the position angle appears time independent.…
We investigate stellar microlensing of the collimated gamma-ray burst afterglows. A spherical afterglow appears on the sky as a superluminally expanding thin ring (``ring-like'' image), which is maximally amplified as it crosses the lens.…
Gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows are thought to be produced by an ultra-relativistic 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 past year has witnessed a large increase in our knowledge of the polarization properties of Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) radiation. In the prompt phase, the measurement (albeit highly debated) of a large degree of linear polarization in GRB…
I discuss some theoretical expectations for the synchrotron emission from a relativistic blast-wave interacting with the ambient medium, as a model for GRB afterglows, and compare them with observations. An afterglow flux evolving as a…
Well-sampled optical lightcurves of 146 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are complied from the literature. Multiple optical emission components are extracted with power-law function fits to these lightcurves. We present a systematical analysis for…
Nearly all previous discussion on beaming effects in GRBs have assumed a conical geometry. However, more and more observations on relativistic jets in radio galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and "microquasars" in the Galaxy have shown that…
Gravitational-wave detected neutron star mergers provide an opportunity to investigate short gamma-ray burst (GRB) jet afterglows without the GRB trigger. Here we show that the post-peak afterglow decline can distinguish between an…
The broadband afterglow of GW170817/GRB 170817A is believed to be from an off-axis structured jet. The central engine of a gamma-ray burst usually launches a pair of outflows that move oppositely, it is reasonable to consider the emission…
Short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are explosive transients caused by binary mergers of compact objects containing at least one neutron star. Multi-wavelength afterglow observations provide constraints on the physical parameters of the jet, its…
Polarisation measurements of gamma-ray burst afterglows provide a powerful tool for probing the structure of relativistic jets. In this study, we revisit polarisation signals observed in gamma-ray burst afterglows, focusing on the effects…
GRB afterglow polarization is discussed. We find an observable, up to 10%, polarization, if the magnetic field coherence length grows at about the speed of light after the field is generated at the shock front. Detection of a polarized…
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,…
During the in-spiral stage of a compact binary, a wind bubble could be blown into interstellar medium, if the electromagnetic radiation due to the binary orbital motion is strong enough. Therefore, short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) due to…
Two components of jets associated with the afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 160623A were observed with multi-frequency observations including long-term monitoring in a sub-millimetre range (230 GHz) using the SMA. The observed light…