Related papers: Polarization in GRB Afterglows
We report on the status of our search for X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) using the ROSAT all-sky survey data. The number of potential X-ray afterglow candidates with respect to the expected number of beamed GRBs allows to…
Understanding the reasons for the faintness of the optical/near-infrared afterglows of the so-called dark bursts is essential to assess whether they form a subclass of GRBs, and hence for the use of GRBs in cosmology. With VLT and other…
The discoveries that GRBs have X-ray, optical and radio afterglows have connected the study of GRBs to the rest of astronomy, and revolutionized the field. In this review, I discuss the implications that the observation of these afterglows…
Because of their cosmological origin, gamma-ray burst (GRB) optical afterglows are attenuated when they pass intergalactic absorbers in the GRB line-of-sight. Without the knowledge of the number of absorbers and their physical properties,…
The standard model of GRB afterglows assumes that relativistically expanding material is decelerating due to interaction with the surrounding medium. The afterglows are well described by the synchrotron radiation from a forward shock, while…
The discovery of X-ray, optical and radio afterglows of GRBs provides an important tool for understanding these sources. Most current models envisage GRB as arising in a cataclysmic stellar event leading to a relativistically expanding…
Observations of gamma ray bursts (GRB) afterglows in different spectral bands provide a most valuable information about their nature, as well as about properties of surrounding medium. Powerful infrared afterglow was observed from the…
Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows are commonly interpreted as synchrotron emission from a relativistic blast wave produced by a point explosion in an ambient medium, plausibly the interstellar medium of galaxies. We calculate the amplitude…
When does a GRB stop and its afterglow begin? A GRB may be defined as emission by internal shocks and its afterglow as emission by an external shock, but it is necessary to distinguish them observationally. With these definitions…
Models for gamma-ray burst afterglows envisage an hyper-relativistic fireball that is decelerated in the ambient medium around the explosion site. This interaction produces a shock wave which amplifies the magnetic field and accelerates…
Taylor et al. (2004) reported recently on the first direct measurement of the apparent size of a GRB afterglow. Here we confront these observations with the predictions of the fireball model. We use a simple model to study numerically the…
The central engine and jet composition of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remain mysterious. Here we suggest that observations on polarization evolution of early optical afterglows may shed light on these questions. We first study the dynamics of a…
Recent detections of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) at TeV energies opened new prospects for investigating radiative environments and particle acceleration mechanisms under extreme conditions. In this paper, we study the afterglows of these GRBs -…
In several GRBs afterglows, rapid temporal decay is observed which is inconsistent with spherical (isotropic) blast-wave models. In particular, GRB 980519 had the most rapidly fading of the well-documented GRB afterglows, with t^{-2.05\pm…
GRB011121 is analyzed as a prototype to understand the ``flares'' recently observed by Swift in the afterglow of many GRB sources. Detailed theoretical computation of the GRB011121 light curves in selected energy bands are presented and…
GRB fireballs could be ensheathed by a relativistic, baryon-enriched outflow that would in selected directions scatter a polarized beam of gamma rays. The strong polarization recently announced by RHESSI is attainable by the scattering…
Short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) are widely believed to result from the mergers of compact binaries. This model predicts an afterglow that bears the characteristic signatures of a constant, low density medium, including a smooth…
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…
We use a large sample of GRB afterglow and prompt-emission data (adding further GRB afterglow observations in this work) to compare the optical afterglows (or the lack thereof) of Type I GRBs with those of Type II GRBs. In comparison to the…
This is a very short conference proceeding based on a poster shown at the ESO workshop "Science with the VLT in the ELT Era". For more information, see "The Afterglows of Swift-era Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Comparing pre-Swift and Swift era…