Related papers: Generalized compactness limit from an arbitrary vi…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are known to be highly collimated events, and are mostly detectable when they are seen on-axis or very nearly on-axis. However, GRBs can be seen from off-axis angles, and the recent detection of a short GRB…
Fast cosmological transients such as fast radio bursts (FRBs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) represent a class of sources more compact than any other cosmological object. As such they are sensitive to significant magnification via…
The origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been enigmatic since their discovery. The situation improved dramatically in 1997, when the rapid availability of precise coordinates for the bursts allowed the detection of faint optical and radio…
We propose a direct and model-independent method to constrain the Lorentz factor of a relativistically expanding object, like gamma-ray bursts. Only the measurements, such as thermal component of the emission, the distance and the variable…
The observed behavior of a short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) afterglow lightcurve can reveal the angular structure of the relativistic jet and constrain the observer's viewing angle $\theta_\textrm{obs}$. Regardless of viewing angle, the…
The detection of x-ray afterglows of gamma-ray burst (GRB) sources has enabled the optical discovery that GRBs are at cosmological distances, which confirms that the enormous luminosities required must produce a relativistically expanding…
Long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) release copious amounts of energy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and so provide a window into the process of black hole formation from the collapse of a massive star. Over the last forty…
The recent coincident detection of gravitational waves (GW) from a binary neutron star merger with aLIGO/Virgo and short-lived gamma-ray emission with Fermi/GBM (called GW 170817) is a milestone for the establishment of multi-messenger…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most brilliant objects in the Universe but efforts to estimate the total energy released in the explosion -- a crucial physical quantity -- have been stymied by their unknown geometry: spheres or cones. We…
Assuming that the early optical emission is dominated by the external reverse shock (RS) in the standard model of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), we intend to constrain RS models with the initial Lorentz factor $\Gamma_0$ of the outflows based on…
Opacity effects in relativistic sources of high-energy gamma-rays, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) or Blazars, can probe the Lorentz factor of the outflow and the distance of the emission site from the source, and thus help constrain the…
It is noted that the Liang-Zhang correlation can be accounted for with the viewing angle interpretation proposed earlier. The Ghirlanda correlation, recently generalized by Nava et al (2006) to a wind profile, can be accounted for by the…
We define compactness of a gravitational lens as the scaled closest distance of approach (i.e., $r_0/M$) of the null geodesic giving rise to an image. We model forty supermassive dark objects as Schwarzschild lenses and compute compactness…
Two main types of models have been suggested to explain the long durations and multiple peaks of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). In one, there is a very quick release of energy at a central site resulting in a single relativistic shell that…
Short gamma-ray bursts are believed to originate from the merger of two compact objects. If this scenario is correct, these bursts will be accompanied by the emission of strong gravitational waves, detectable by current or planned GW…
Many cosmological models of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) assume that a single relativistic shell carries kinetic energy away from the source and later converts it into gamma rays, perhaps by interactions with the interstellar medium or by shocks…
Gravitational lensing effect is one of most significant observational probes to investigate compact dark matter/objects over a wide mass range. In this work, we first propose to derive the population information and the abundance of…
[abridged] We investigate the afterglow properties and large-scale environments of several short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) with sub-arcsecond optical afterglow positions but no bright coincident host galaxies. The purpose of this…
It is proposed that the gamma ray burst photons near the peak of the spectrum at several hundred KeV are produced on very compact scales, where photon production is limited by blackbody effects and/or the requirement of energetic quanta…
We investigate whether Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) from the Current BATSE Catalog have been affected by weak lensing by the nearby large scale structure. The redshift distribution of GRBs is believed to be broad, extending to z~5, so most…