The Central Engines of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

Leading models for the "central engine" of long, soft gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are briefly reviewed with emphasis on the collapsar model. Growing evidence supports the hypothesis that GRBs are a supernova-like phenomenon occurring in star forming regions, differing from ordinary supernovae in that a large fraction of their energy is concentrated in highly relativistic jets. The possible progenitors and physics of such explosions are discussed and the important role of the interaction of the emerging relativistic jet with the collapsing star is emphasized. This interaction may be responsible for most of the time structure seen in long, soft GRBs. What we have called "GRBs" may actually be a diverse set of phenomena with a key parameter being the angle at which the burst is observed. GRB 980425/SN 1988bw and the recently discovered hard x-ray flashes may be examples of this diversity.

8 pages, Proc. Woods Hole GRB meeting, Nov 5 - 9 WoodsHole Massachusetts, Ed. Roland Vanderspek

Cited by in corpus (8)

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• The Propagation and Eruption of Relativistic Jets from the Stellar Progenitors of GRBs
• Global Properties of X-Ray Flashes and X-Ray-Rich Gamma-Ray Bursts Observed by Swift
• Formation Rate, Evolving Luminosity Function, Jet Structure, and Progenitors for Long Gamma-Ray Bursts
• General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Collapsars: Rotating Black Hole Cases
• The Interpretation and Implication of the Afterglow of GRB 060218
• The First Two Host Galaxies of X-ray Flashes: XRF 011030 and XRF 020427
• X-ray flashes from off-axis nonuniform jets