Gamma-Ray Bursts and Binary Neutron Star Mergers

Abstract

Neutron star binaries, such as the one observed in the famous binary pulsar PSR 1916+13, end their life in a catastrophic merge event (denoted here NS${}^2$M). The merger releases $\approx 5\cdot 10^{53}$ergs, mostly as neutrinos and gravitational radiation. A small fraction of this energy suffices to power $\gamma$-ray bursts (GRBs) at cosmological distances. Cosmological GRBs must pass, however, an optically thick fireball phase and the observed $\gamma$-rays emerge only at the end of this phase. Hence, it is difficult to determine the nature of the source from present observations (the agreement between the rates of GRBs and NS${}^2$Ms being only an indirect evidence for this model). In the future a coinciding detection of a GRB and a gravitational radiation signal could confirm this model.

13 pages, uuencoded ps files to apprear in IAU SYMPOSIUM 165 `COMPACT STARS IN BINARIES' 15-19 August 1994, The Hague, Netherlands

References in corpus (11)

• Gamma-Ray Bursts as the Death Throes of Massive Binary Stars
• Unsteady Outflow Models for Cosmological Gamma-Ray Bursts
• The Last Three Minutes: Issues in Gravitational Wave Measurements of Coalescing Compact Binaries
• Hydrodynamics of Relativistic Fireballs
• Gamma-Ray Bursts: Multiwaveband Spectral Predictions for Blast Wave Models
• Two Populations and Models of Gamma Ray Bursts
• Gravitational Waves and $\gamma$-Ray Bursts
• Gamma-Ray Bursts are Time-Asymmetric
• Fireballs in the Galactic Halo and $\gamma$-Ray Bursts
• On the Bimodal Distribution of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Stability of Fireballs and $\gamma$-Ray Bursts

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Compact Binary Coalescences: Astrophysical Processes and Lessons Learned
• From gamma-ray bursts to fast radio bursts
• Gamma-radiation sky maps from compact binaries