Quasi-Thermal Comptonization and GRBs

Abstract

Quasi-thermal Comptonization is an attractive alternative to the synchrotron process to explain the spectra of GRBs, even if we maintain other important properties of the internal shock scenario, implying a compact emitting region and an equipartition magnetic field. Photon-photon absorption and electron-positron pairs can play a crucial role: this process may lock the effective temperature in a narrow range and may be the reason why burst spectra have high energy cut-offs close to the rest mass-energy of the electron. If the progenitors of GRB are hypernovae, the circum-burst matter is dominated by the wind of the pre-hypernova star. The presence of this dense material has strong effects on the generation of the radiation of the burst and its afterglow.

7 pages, contributed paper for the meeting: "Gamma-ray bursts: the first three minutes", Editors: J. Poutanen and R. Svensson

Cited by in corpus (15)

• The Proto-Magnetar Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Prompt GRB emission from gradual energy dissipation
• Reconciling observed GRB prompt spectra with synchrotron radiation ?
• Prompt emission spectra from the photosphere of a GRB
• Spectral and timing properties of a dissipative GRB photosphere
• Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts Prompt Emission
• The peak energy of dissipative GRB photospheres
• A double component in GRB 090618: a proto-black hole and a genuinely long GRB
• High Energy Neutrinos from Dissipative Photospheric Models of Gamma Ray Bursts
• High-energy emission from Gamma-Ray Bursts
• GRB 211227A as a peculiar long gamma-ray burst from compact star merger
• Electromagnetic Catastrophe in Ultrarelativistic Shocks and the Prompt Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Analysis of GRB 080319B and GRB 050904 within the fireshell model: evidence for a broader spectral energy distribution
• Radiation from a Relativistic Poynting Jet: some general considerations
• Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays and Neutrinos from Gamma-Ray Bursts, Hypernovae and Galactic Shocks