On the sideways expansion of relativistic non-spherical shocks and GRB afterglows

Abstract

Expansion of non-spherical relativistic blast waves is considered in the Kompaneets (the thin shell) approximation. We find that the relativistic motion effectively "freezes out" the lateral dynamics of the shock front: only extremely strongly collimated shocks, with the opening angles $\Delta \theta \le 1/{\Gamma }^2$, show appreciable modification of profiles due to sideways expansion. For less collimated profiles the propagation is nearly ballistic; the sideways expansion of relativistic shock becomes important only when they become mildly relativistic.

References in corpus (3)

• The Dynamics and Afterglow Radiation of Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Constant Density Medium
• Relativistic Jet Dynamics and Calorimetry of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Dynamics and stability of relativistic GRB blast waves

Cited by in corpus (4)

• On the Deceleration and Spreading of Relativistic Jets I: Jet Dynamics
• The late-time afterglow evolution of long gamma-ray bursts GRB 160625B and GRB 160509A
• The origin of the late rebrightening in GRB 080503
• Conditions for jet break-out in NS mergers