Physics of non-dissipative ultrarelativistic photospheres

Abstract

Recent observations, especially by the Fermi satellite, point out the importance of the thermal component in GRB spectra. This fact revives strong interest in photospheric emission from relativistic outflows. Early studies already suggested that the observed spectrum of photospheric emission from relativistically moving objects differs in shape from the Planck spectrum. However, this component appears to be subdominant in many GRBs and the origin of the dominant component is still unclear. One of the popular ideas is that energy dissipation near the photosphere may produce a non-thermal spectrum and account for such emission. Before considering such models, though, one has to determine precise spectral and timing characteristics of the photospheric emission in the simplest possible case. Hence this paper focuses on various physical effects which make the photospheric emission spectrum different from the black body spectrum and quantifies them.

Based on a talk presented at the Thirteenth Marcel Grossmann Meeting on General Relativity, Stockholm, July 2012

References in corpus (12)

• Temporal Evolution Of Thermal Emission From Relativistically Expanding Plasma
• A new method of determining the initial size and Lorentz factor of gamma-ray burst fireballs using a thermal emission component
• Prompt emission spectra from the photosphere of a GRB
• Photospheric emission as the dominant radiation mechanism in long-duration gamma-ray bursts
• Thermal Radiation from GRB Jets
• Variable jet properties in GRB110721A: Time resolved observations of the jet photosphere
• Photospheric emission from stratified jets
• Monte Carlo simulations of the photospheric emission in GRBs
• GRB 090227B: the missing link between the genuine short and long GRBs
• Neutron-rich gamma-ray burst flows: dynamics and particle creation in neutron - proton collisions
• Comptonization of photons near the photosphere of relativistic outflows
• Spreading of ultrarelativistically expanding shell: an application to GRBs

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts Prompt Emission
• Low Energy Spectral Index and $E_p$ evolution of Quasi-thermal Photosphere Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• MultiPulse {\it Fermi} Gamma-Ray Bursts. I. Evidence of the Transition from Fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated Outflow
• Thermal Components in Gamma-ray Bursts. I. How Do They Affect Non-Thermal Spectral Parameters?
• Photospheric Emission in Gamma-Ray Bursts
• "Double-tracking" Characteristic of the Spectral Evolution of GRB 131231A: Synchrotron Origin?
• An External Shock Origin of GRB $\text{141028A}$
• The Limited Contribution of Low- and High-Luminosity Gamma-Ray Bursts to Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays
• Constraining the bulk Lorentz factor from the photosphere emission
• The anatomy of a long gamma-ray burst: a simple classification scheme for the emission mechanism(s)
• Monte Carlo Simulations of the Photospheric Process
• Diffusive photospheres in gamma-ray bursts
• A Spectral Analysis of Fermi-LLE GRBs
• Is magnetically dominated outflow required to explain GRBs?
• GRB 190114C: Fireball Energy Budget and Radiative Efficiency Revisited