Related papers: Gamma-Ray Bursts - When Theory Meets Observations
Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, whose origin and mechanism is the focus of intense interest. They appear connected to supernova remnants from massive stars or the merger of their remnants, and their…
Since the suggestion of relativistic shocks as the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in early 90's, the mathematical formulation of this process has stayed at phenomenological level. One of the reasons for the slow development of…
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…
Observations show that at least some gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) happen simultaneously with core-collapse supernovae (SNe), thus linking by a common thread nature's two grandest explosions. We review here the growing evidence for and…
A list of questions regarding Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Soft Gamma Repeaters (SGRs) remain unanswered within the Fireball-cone and Magnetar explosive scenarios. A persistent, thin (less than micron-sr solid angle) precessing and spinning…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are believed to originate in compact remnants (black holes or neutron stars) of massive stars. Their high luminosities make them detectable out to the edge of the visible universe. We describe the many advantages of…
We propose that gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by a shower of heavy blobs running into circumstellar material at highly relativistic speeds. The gamma ray emission is produced in the shocks these bullets drive into the surrounding…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were first detected thanks to their prompt emission, which was the only information available for decades. In 2010, while the high-energy prompt emission remains the main tool for the detection and the first…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful cosmic explosions since the Big Bang, and thus act as signposts throughout the distant Universe. Over the last 2 decades, these ultra-luminous cosmological explosions have been transformed from…
Since their discovery in 1973, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have remained for many years one of the most elusive mysteries in High Energy-Astrophysics. The main problem regarding the nature of GRBs has usually been the lack of knowledge of their…
Gamma-ray bursts are believed to be some catastrophic event in which material is ejected at a relativistic velocity, and internal collisions within this ejecta produce the observed $\gamma$-ray flash. The angular size of a causally…
We discuss some open problems concerning the origin and the emission mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in light of recent developments. If GRBs originate at extragalactic distances, we are facing four crises: (1) an energy crisis, models…
Highly magnetized, rapidly rotating compact objects are widely argued as central energy sources of $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs). After the GRB, such a magnetar-like object may directly lose its rotational energy through some…
A pedagogical derivation is presented of the ``fireball'' model of gamma-ray bursts, according to which the observable effects are due to the dissipation of the kinetic energy of a relativistically expanding wind, a ``fireball.'' The main…
If gamma ray bursts are highly collimated, radiating into only a small fraction of the sky, the energy requirements of each event may be reduced by several (up to 4 - 6) orders of magnitude, and the event rate increased correspondingly. The…
We propose that repeated photoexcitation/ionization of high Z atoms of highly relativistic flows by star light in dense stellar regions followed by emission of decay/recombination photons, which are beamed and boosted to gamma ray energies…
A theoretical attempt to identify the physical process responsible for the afterglow emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) is presented, leading to the occurrence of thermal emission in the comoving frame of the shock wave giving rise to the…
Presently there are several classes of detected gamma-ray extragalatic sources. They are mostly associated to active galactic nuclei (AGN) and (at soft gamma rays) to gamma-ray bursts (GRB), but not only. Active galactic nuclei consist of…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the brightest sources in the universe, emit mostly in the hard X-ray energy band and have been detected at redshifts up to ~8.1. Thus, they are in principle very powerful probes for cosmology. I shortly review…
The unrivalled, extreme luminosities of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) make them the favored beacons for sampling the high redshift Universe. To employ GRBs to study the cosmic terrain -- e.g., star and galaxy formation history -- GRB luminosities…