Related papers: Radiation from Relativistic Strongly Magnetized Ou…
Highly magnetized, rapidly rotating compact objects are widely argued as central energy sources of $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs). After the GRB, such a magnetar-like object may directly lose its rotational energy through some…
Magnetars younger than one century are expected to be hyper active. Besides winds powered by rotation they generate frequent magnetic flares, which launch powerful blast waves into the wind. These internal shocks act as masers producing…
Powerful radio sources and quasars emit relativistic jets of plasma and magnetic fields that travel hundreds of kilo-parsecs, ultimately depositing energy into the intra- or inter-cluster medium. In the rest frame of the jet, the energy…
By now there is substantial evidence that Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) originate at cosmological distances from very powerful explosions. The interaction between a GRB and its surrounding environment has dramatic consequences on the environment…
By assuming the inverse square law of solar wind plasma density as representative of other stars, it is shown that just outside a star the {\it outward} deflection of a passing radio signal at $\nu\approx 1$~GHz (which is capable of…
Recent radio observations support a picture for star formation where there is accretion of matter onto a central protostar with the ejection of molecular outflows that can affect the surrounding medium. The impact of a supersonic outflow on…
(Abridged) We interpret gamma ray bursts as relativistic, electromagnetic explosions. Specifically, we propose that they are created when a rotating, relativistic, stellar-mass progenitor loses much of its rotational energy in the form of a…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are the strongest explosions in the Universe, which due to their extreme character likely involve some of the strongest magnetic fields in nature. This review discusses the possible roles of magnetic fields in GRBs,…
Star quakes and internal phase transitions within anomalous x-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft $\gamma$-ray repeaters (SGRs) can produce mini contractions and pulsar glitches. Shocks break out from their surface following such contractions…
The radiation of a pulsar wind is computed assuming that at roughly 10 to 100 light cylinder radii from the star, magnetic energy is dissipated into particle energy. The synchrotron emission of heated particles appears periodic, with, in…
We study the dynamics of relativistic electromagnetic explosions as a possible mechanism for the production of Gamma-Ray Bursts. We propose that a rotating relativistic stellar-mass progenitor loses much of its spin energy in the form of an…
Gamma Ray Bursts are among the most powerful astrophysical sources and they release up to 1.e54 erg, if isotropic, in less than few hundred seconds. Their detection in the hard X/gamma ray band (at energies >10 keV) and out to very high…
Relativistic reconnection has been invoked as a mechanism for particle acceleration in numerous astrophysical systems. According to idealised analytical models reconnection produces a bulk relativistic outflow emerging from the reconnection…
Extremely bright coherent radio bursts with millisecond duration, reminiscent of cosmological fast radio bursts (FRBs), were co-detected with anomalously-hard X-ray bursts from a Galactic magnetar SGR 1935$+$2154. We investigate the…
The recently discovered soft gamma-ray emission from the anomalous X-ray pulsar 1E 1841-045 has a luminosity L_g ~ 10^{36} ergs/s. This luminosity exceeds the spindown power by three orders of magnitude and must be fed by an alternative…
The prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (hereafter GRBs) probably comes from a highly relativistic wind which converts its kinetic energy into radiation via the formation of shocks within the wind itself. Such "internal shocks" can occur if…
Observations of X-ray flares from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) imply strong constraints on possible physical models. We provide a general discussion of these. In particular, we show that in order to account for the relatively flat and weak…
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-timescale bursts of coherent radio emission that are luminous enough to be detectable at cosmological distances. In this review I describe the discovery of FRBs, subsequent advances in our…
A number of recent lines of evidence point towards the presence of hot, out-flowing plasma from the central regions of compact Galactic and extragalactic X-ray sources. Additionally, it has long been noted that many of these sources exhibit…
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…