Related papers: Cyclotron Line Formation in a Radiation-driven Out…
There is mounting evidence that, if gamma-ray bursters are Galactic in origin, they are located in a Galactic corona at distances greater than 100 kpc. This has created a need to explore new models of cyclotron line formation. In most…
We use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to examine the dependence of the properties of cyclotron resonant scattering lines on the spatial geometry and the optical depth of the line-forming region. We focus most of our attention on a…
Cyclotron resonance scattering features are observed in the spectra of some X-ray pulsars and show significant changes in the line energy with the pulsar luminosity. In a case of bright sources, the line centroid energy is anti-correlated…
Cyclotron resonance scattering features observed in the spectra of some X-ray pulsars show significant changes of the line centroid energy with the pulsar luminosity. Whereas for bright sources above the so called critical luminosity these…
Cyclotron resonance scattering features observed in the spectra of some X-ray pulsars show significant changes of the line energy with the pulsar luminosity. At high luminosities, these variations are often associated with the onset and…
The emission mechanism of the gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) is still a matter of debates. The standard synchrotron energy spectrum of cooling electrons F_E ~ E^{-1/2} is much too soft to account for the majority of the observed spectral slopes.…
The evidence for spectral features in gamma-ray bursts is summarized. As a guide for evaluating the evidence, the properties of gamma-ray detectors and the methods of analyzing gamma-ray spectra are reviewed. In the 1980's, observations…
The modelling of gamma-ray burst (GRB) spectra has considerable potential for increasing the understanding of these enigmatic sources. A diversity of ideas and analyses has been generated over the last two decades to explain line features…
(abbreviated version of the abstract) We study the physics of cyclotron line formation in the high-energy spectra of accreting X-ray pulsars using Monte Carlo methods, assuming that the line-forming region is a low-density electron plasma…
We calculate the synchrotron self-Compton emission from internal shocks occurring in relativistic winds as a source of gamma-ray bursts, with allowance for self-absorption. For plausible model parameters most pulses within a Gamma-Ray Burst…
In the hypernova/collapsar model of gamma-ray bursts, it is natural that radiation is emitted by the inner engine for some time after the burst. This has been discussed as a possible source of the X-ray line emission observed in some…
We investigate the viability of Galactic corona models of gamma-ray bursts by calculating the spatial distribution expected for a population of high-velocity neutron stars born in the Galactic disk and moving in a gravitational potential…
The BATSE experiment on GRO has demonstrated the isotropic arrival directions and flat $\log N$ {\it vs.} $\log S$ of cosmic gamma-ray bursts. These data are best explained if the burst sources are distributed throughout an extended…
Synchrotron radiation and Compton scattering are widely accepted as the most likely emission mechanisms of some astrophysical phenomena, such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and active galactic nuclei (AGNs). The measurement on polarization of…
We investigate line formation in gas that is outflowing and optically thick to electron scattering, as may be expected following the tidal disruption of a star by a super-massive black hole. Using radiative transfer calculations, we show…
We describe a general method for modeling gamma-ray burst prompt emission. We find that for the burst to be produced via the synchrotron process unphysical conditions are required -- the distance of the source from the center of the…
The BATSE experiment has now observed more than 1100 gamma-ray bursts. The observed angular distribution is isotropic, while the brightness distribution of bursts shows a reduced number of faint events. These observations favor a…
The positions of over 1000 gamma-ray bursts detected with the BATSE experiment on board of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory are uniformly and randomly distributed in the sky, with no significant concentration to the galactic plane or to…
Estimates indicate there may be $\simgreat 10^3$ low luminosity X-ray pulsars ($L \simless 10^{34} \rom{erg\;s^{-1}}$) in the Galaxy undergoing ``low-state'' wind accretion in Be/X-ray binary systems, and $\sim 10^8-10^9$ isolated neutron…
A model is proposed for the observed combination of power-law and thermal emission of keV X-rays from rotationally powered pulsars. For gamma-ray pulsars with accelerators very many stellar radii above the neutron star surface, 100 MeV…