Related papers: GRB990123: Evidence that the Gamma Rays Come from …
Roughly half of the observed gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may arise from the shocking of an ultra-relativistic shell of protons with the interstellar medium (ISM). Any neutrons originally present in the GRB fireball may, depending on the…
This paper presents the theoretical basis of the fireball/blast wave model, and some implications of recent results on GRB source models and cosmic-ray production from GRBs. BATSE observations of the prompt gamma-ray luminous phase, and…
Leading models for the "central engine" of long, soft gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are briefly reviewed with emphasis on the collapsar model. Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that GRBs are a supernova-like phenomenon occurring in star…
We call "prompt" emission of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) the erratic and violent phase of hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission, usually lasting for tens of seconds in long GRBs. However, the central engine of GRBs may live much longer.…
GRB 120422A is a low-luminosity Gamma-ray burst (GRB) associated with a bright supernova, which distinguishes itself by its relatively short T90 ~ 5 s and an energetic X-ray tail. We analyze the Swift BAT and XRT data and discuss the…
The physical mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) remains elusive. One of the difficulties in nailing down their physical mechanism comes from the fact that there has been no clear observational evidence on how far from the central engine…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the brightest electromagnetic bursts in the universe, are believed to originate from ultra-relativistic jets launched by the rapidly rotating central engine, either a disk-surrounded newly formed black hole (BH) or…
Despite two decades since the discovery of low-luminosity gamma-ray bursts, their origin remains poorly understood. In events such as GRB 060218, shock breakout from a progenitor with an extended ($10^{13}$ - $10^{14}$ cm), low-mass (0.01 -…
We test the hypothesis that prompt gamma-ray burst pulse emission starts simultaneously at all energies (the Pulse Start Conjecture). Our analysis, using a sample of BATSE bursts observed with four channel, 64-ms data and performed using a…
The explosion that results in a cosmic gamma-ray burst (GRB) is thought to produce emission from two physical processes -- the activity of the central engine gives rise to the high-energy emission of the burst through internal shocking and…
The optical and gamma-ray observations of GRB 080319B allow us to determine a fairly complete physical picture for this remarkable burst. The data indicate that the prompt optical and gamma-ray photons were produced at the same location but…
The flat decay phase in the first 1e2-1e4 seconds of the X-ray light curve of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) has not yet found a convincing explanation. The fact that the optical and X-ray lightcurves are often different, with breaks at different…
The recent simultaneous detection of optical, X-ray and gamma-ray photons from GRB990123 during the burst provides the first broadband multi-wavelength characterization of the burst spectrum and evolution. Here we show that a direct…
One of the major achievements of Swift is the discovery of the erratic X-ray flares harboring nearly half of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), both for long-duration and short-duration categories, and both for traditional hard GRBs and soft X-ray…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are short and intense bursts of $\sim$100 keV$-$1MeV photons, usually followed by long-lasting decaying afterglow emission in a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths from radio to X-ray and, sometimes, even to GeV…
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…
GRB 990123 was a long, complex gamma-ray burst accompanied by an extremely bright optical flash. We find different constraints on the bulk Lorentz of this burst to be consistent with the speculation that the optical light is emission from…
Highly variable gamma-ray pulses and X-ray flares in GRB light curves can result from external shocks rather than central engine activity under the assumption that the GRB blast-wave shell does not spread. Acceleration of cosmic rays to…
The prompt optical emission contemporaneous with the $\gamma$-rays from $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) carries important information on the central engine and explosion mechanism. We study the time lag between prompt optical emission and…
The early optical emission of the moderately high redshift ($z=3.08$) GRB 060607A shows a remarkable broad and strong peak with a rapid rise and a relatively slow power-law decay. It is not coincident with the strong early-time flares seen…