Gamma-Ray Bursts: Progress, Problems & Prospects

Abstract

The cosmological gamma-ray burst (GRB) phenomenon is reviewed. The broad observational facts and empirical phenomenological relations of the GRB prompt emission and afterglow are outlined. A well-tested, successful fireball shock model is introduced in a pedagogical manner. Several important uncertainties in the current understanding of the phenomenon are reviewed, and prospects of how future experiments and extensive observational and theoretical efforts may address these problems are discussed.

86 pages, 17 figures, 566 references, an invited review for International Journal of Modern Physics A, in press

References in corpus (1)

• Evolution of the polarization of the optical afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB 030329

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The very early afterglow powered by the ultra-relativistic mildly magnetized outflows
• High energy neutrinos from a slow jet model of core collapse supernovae
• Multi-Wavelength Studies of the Optically Dark Gamma-Ray Burst 001025A
• Enhancement of the ${\bar{\nu }}_e$ flux from astrophysical sources by two photon annihilation interactions
• The red optical afterglow of GRB 030725