Related papers: Cosmological Flashes from Rotating Black Holes
This contribution summarizes, as of early 2008, the observational and theoretical understanding of the origin, physics, and emission properties of short gamma-ray bursts in both electromagnetic and gravitational waves.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short, intense flashes of soft gamma-rays coming from the distant Universe. Long-duration GRBs (those lasting more than ~2 s) are believed to originate from the deaths of massive stars, mainly on the basis of a…
This article gives an overview of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and their relation to astroparticle physics and cosmology. GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the universe that occur roughly once per day and are characterized by flashes of…
We propose that the gravitational collapse of supermassive objects ($ M\ga 10^4 M_\odot$), either as relativistic star clusters or as single supermassive stars (which may result from stellar mergers in dense star clusters), could be a…
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…
We present the results of hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations showing the coalescence of a black hole with a neutron star to be a promising theoretical source of short duration gamma-ray bursts. The favorable features of the process include…
The collapsar model was proposed to explain the long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), while the short GRBs are associated with the mergers of compact objects. In the first case, mainly the energetics of the events is consistent with the…
We report on evidence for black hole spindown in the light curves of the BATSE catalogue of 1491 long GRBs by application of matched filtering. This observation points to a strong interaction of the black hole with surrounding high density…
The electromagnetic signature of a point explosion near a Kerr black hole (BH) is evaluated. The first repetitions produced by gravitational lensing are not periodic in time; periodicity emerges only as the result of multiple circuits of…
It is generally believed that long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are associated with massive star core-collapse, whereas short-duration GRBs are associated with mergers of compact star binaries. However, growing observations have…
The recently discovered gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 060218/SN 2006aj is classified as an X-ray Flash with very long duration driven possibly by a neutron star. Since GRB 060218 is very near about 140 Mpc and very dim, one-year observation by…
Gamma-ray bursts are cosmological sources emitting radiation from the gamma-rays to the radio band. Substantial observational efforts have been devoted to the study of GRBs during the prompt phase, i.e. the initial burst of high-energy…
We investigate the idea that ultrahigh energy gamma-rays (E>10 TeV) can be produced when charged particles are accelerated by microscopic black holes. We begin by showing that microscopic black holes may exist as remnants of primordial…
The recent localization of some short-hard gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in galaxies with low star formation rates has lent support to the suggestion that these events result from compact object binary mergers. We discuss how new simulations in…
Double neutron star mergers are strong sources of gravitational waves. The upcoming advanced gravitational wave detectors are expected to make the first detection of gravitational wave bursts (GWBs) associated with these sources. Proposed…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have remained a puzzle for many high-energy astrophysicists since their discovery in 1967. With the advent of the X-ray satellites BeppoSAX and RossiXTE, it has been possible to carry out deep multi-wavelength…
Gamma-ray burst astronomy has undergone a revolution in the last three years, spurred by the discovery of fading long-wavelength counterparts. We now know that at least the long duration GRBs lie at cosmological distances with estimated…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are sudden, intense flashes of gamma-rays which, for a few blinding seconds, light up in an otherwise fairly dark gamma-ray sky. They are detected at the rate of about once a day, and while they are on, they outshine…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) fall into two classes: short-hard and long-soft bursts. The latter are now known to have X-ray and optical afterglows, to occur at cosmological distances in star-forming galaxies, and to be associated with the…
Lasting anywhere from a few milliseconds to several minutes, GRBs shine hundreds of times brighter than a typical supernova, making them briefly the brightest source of cosmic gamma-ray photons in the observable Universe. This thesis…