Related papers: Gamma-Ray Burst Environments and Progenitors
I review gamma-ray burst optical/multiwavelength afterglow observations since 1997, when the first counterparts to GRBs were discovered. I discuss what we have learned from multiwavelength observations of GRB afterglows in relation to the…
Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows close to their peak intensity are among the brightest X-ray sources in the sky. Despite their fast power-law like decay, when fluxes are integrated from minutes up to hours after the GRB event, the…
The interaction of a relativistic fireball with its ambient medium is described through two shocks: a reverse shock that propagates into the fireball, and a forward shock that propagates into the medium. The observed optical flash of GRB…
Extended, fading emissions in multi-wavelength are observed following Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Recent broad-band observational campaigns led by the Swift Observatory reveal rich features of these GRB afterglows. Here we review the latest…
We have gathered optical photometry data from the literature on a large sample of Swift-era gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows including GRBs up to September 2009, for a total of 76 GRBs, and present an additional three pre-Swift GRBs not…
Radio observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows provide both complementary and unique diagnostics of the afterglow physics and environment of the burst. Here we concentrate on three unique aspects of GRB energetics and environments…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the ultimate cosmic lighthouses, capable of illuminating the universe at its earliest epochs. Could such events probe the properties of the first stars at z $\sim$ 20, the end of the cosmic Dark Ages? Previous…
Recent observations suggest that the long-duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows are produced by highly relativistic jets emitted in supernova explosions. We propose that the result of the event is not just a compact object…
It is now generally accepted that long-duration gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are due to the collapse of massive rotating stars. The precise collapse process itself, however, is not yet fully understood. Strong winds, outbursts, and intense…
The amount and properties of high-redshift galactic and intergalactic (IG) dust are largely unknown, but could be investigated using multi-wavelength photometry of high-z objects that have a known intrinsic spectrum. Observations of…
We calculate the creation of electron--positron pairs in Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) resulting from the collision between scattered and outward moving gamma-ray photons. The number of pairs exceeds the number of ambient medium electrons…
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are thought to result from the interaction of an extremely relativistic outflow interacting with a small amount of material surrounding the site of the explosion. Multi-wavelength observations covering the gamma-ray…
We consider some general implications of bright gamma-ray counterparts to fast radio bursts (FRBs). We show that even if these manifest in only a fraction of FRBs, gamma-ray detections with current satellites (including Swift) can provide…
We present the prompt BAT and afterglow XRT data of Swift-discovered GRB081109A up to ~ 5\times 10^5 sec after the trigger, and the early ground-based optical follow-ups. The temporal and spectral indices of the X-ray afterglow emission…
Despite a rich phenomenology, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are divided into two classes based on their duration and spectral hardness -- the long-soft and the short-hard bursts. The discovery of afterglow emission from long GRBs was a watershed…
The detection of delayed X-ray, optical and radio emission, "afterglow", associated with $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) is consistent with fireball models, where the emission are produced by relativistic expanding blast wave, driven by…
Short-hard and long-soft gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are two distinct phenomena, but their prompt and afterglow emission show many similarities. This suggests that two different progenitor systems lead to similar physical processes and that the…
Millisecond pulsars with strong magnetic fields may be formed through several processes, e.g. accretion-induced collapse of magnetized white dwarfs, merger of two neutron stars. During the birth of such a pulsar, an initial fireball…
Of the cosmological gamma-ray bursts, GRB 011121 has the lowest redshift, z=0.36. More importantly, the multi-color excess in the afterglow detected in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) light curves is compelling observational evidence for…
The present common view about GRB origin is related to cosmology, what is based on statistical analysis, and on measurements of the redshifts in the GRB optical afterglows of long GRB. Models of radiation, and models of the central machine…