Related papers: Overall Evolution of Jetted Gamma-ray Burst Ejecta
We discuss jet dynamics for narrow and wide gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow jets and the observational implications of numerical simulations of relativistic jets in two dimensions. We confirm earlier numerical results that sideways…
Particle acceleration is expected to be different between relativistic and non-relativistic collisionless shocks. We show that electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves (GWs), gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, are ideal targets…
Gravitational-wave detected neutron star mergers provide an opportunity to investigate short gamma-ray burst (GRB) jet afterglows without the GRB trigger. Here we show that the post-peak afterglow decline can distinguish between an…
Nearly all previous discussion on beaming effects in GRBs have assumed a conical geometry. However, more and more observations on relativistic jets in radio galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and "microquasars" in the Galaxy have shown that…
Gamma ray bursts are often modelled as jet-like outflows directed towards the observer; the cone angle of the jet is then commonly inferred from the time at which there is a steepening in the power-law decay of the afterglow. We consider an…
The Gamma-Ray burst (GRB) - afterglow transition is one of the most interesting and least studied GRB phases. During this phase the relativistic ejecta begins interacting with the surrounding matter. A strong short lived reverse shock…
I discuss some theoretical expectations for the synchrotron emission from a relativistic blast-wave interacting with the ambient medium, as a model for GRB afterglows, and compare them with observations. An afterglow flux evolving as a…
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets are narrow, and thus typically point away from us. They are initially ultra-relativistic, causing their prompt $\gamma$-ray and early afterglow emission to be beamed away from us. However, as the jet gradually…
The ultra-relativistic outflows powering gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) acquire angular structure through their interaction with external material. They are often characterized by a compact, nearly uniform narrow core (with half-opening angle…
We propose that the flat decay phase in the first 100-10,000 seconds of the X-ray light curve of Gamma Ray Bursts can be interpreted as prolonged activity of the central engine, producing shells of decreasing bulk Lorentz factors Gamma. The…
A number of correlations between observables have been found to exist for gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows, linking ejecta energy to prompt and afterglow energy release and linking early stage optical and X-ray luminosity to the end times…
GRB afterglow jets have been notoriously difficult to resolve numerically using 2D hydrodynamical simulations due to high outflow Lorentz factors. By performing simulations in a boosted frame, it is possible to calculate light curves from…
The connection between Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and their afterglows is currently not well understood. Afterglow models of synchrotron emission generated by external shocks in the GRB fireball model predict emission detectable in the…
The optical light curve of the energetic gamma-ray burst GRB 991216 is consistent with jet-like behavior in which a power-law decay steepens from t**(-1.22 +/- 0.04) at early times to t**(-1.53 +/- 0.05) in a gradual transition at around 2…
We calculate light-curves for Gamma-Ray Burst afterglows when material ejected in the explosion is confined to a jet which propagates in a medium with a power-law density profile. The observed light-curve decay steepens by a factor of…
A GRB afterglow has been commonly thought to be due to continuous deceleration of a postburst fireball. Many analytical models have made simplifications for deceleration dynamics of the fireball and its radiation property, although they are…
Long duration gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are at cosmological distance, they appear to be located near star forming regions, and are likely associated with some type of supernovae. They are also likely to be strongly beamed, which lowers their…
We present an analysis of the unusual optical light curve of the gamma-ray burst GRB 081029, a long-soft burst with a redshift of z = 3.8479. We combine X-ray and optical observations from the Swift X-Ray Telescope and the Swift…
We report the best evidence to date of a jet break in a short Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglow, using Chandra and Swift XRT observations of the X-ray afterglow of GRB 051221A. The combined X-ray light curve, which has three breaks, is…
It is generally supposed that a transition from the normal decay phase (decay slope $\sim -1$) to a steeper phase (decay slope $\sim -2$) could be suggested as a jet break. The jet opening angle $\theta_{\rm jet}$ is then calculated from…