Blackbody-dominated (BBD) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are events characterized by the absence of a typical afterglow, long durations and the presence of a significant thermal component following the prompt gamma-ray emission. GRB 101225A (the `Christmas burst') is a prototype of this class. A plausible progenitor system for it, and for the BBD-GRBs, is the merger of a neutron star (NS) and a helium core of an evolved, massive star. Using relativistic hydrodynamic simulations we model the propagation of an ultrarelativistic jet through the enviroment created by such a merger and we compute the whole radiative signature, both thermal and non-thermal, of the jet dynamical evolution. We find that the thermal emission originates from the interaction between the jet and the hydrogen envelope ejected during the NS/He merger.
@article{arxiv.1502.07134,
title = {Numerical Models of Blackbody-Dominated GRBs},
author = {Carlos F. Cuesta-Martínez and Miguel-Ángel Aloy and Petar Mimica and Christina C. Thöne and Antonio de Ugarte-Postigo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.07134},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures, proceedings of the meeting "Swift: 10 Years of Discovery" (Rome, Italy; 2-5 December 2014)