Gamma Ray Burst Afterglows and their Implications

Abstract

The discovery of X-ray, optical and radio afterglows of GRBs provides an important tool for understanding these sources. Most current models envisage GRB as arising in a cataclysmic stellar event leading to a relativistically expanding fireball, where particle acceleration at shocks lead to nonthermal radiation. The predictions of this scenario are in substantial agreement with the bulk of the observations. In addition, the data show a diversity of finer structure behavior, which is providing constraints for more detailed models. Current issues of interest are the implications of the beaming for the energetics, the afterglow time structure, dependence on progenitor system, and the role of the environment.

Invited talk at the Rome Conference on Gamma Ray Bursts in the Afterglow Age; latex file, 4 pages, 4 figures, uses aa macros

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Predictions for high-frequency radio surveys of extragalactic sources
• Orphan GRB radio afterglows: Candidates and constraints on beaming
• On the Neutrino Flux from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Gamma-Ray Bursts: The Underlying Model
• Constraints on The Hadronic Content of Gamma Ray Bursts
• High Energy Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Constraints on the Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Flux from Gamma-Ray Bursts from a Prototype Station of the Askaryan Radio Array