A Shotgun Model for Gamma Ray Bursts

Abstract

We propose that gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are produced by a shower of heavy blobs running into circumstellar material at highly relativistic speeds. The gamma ray emission is produced in the shocks these bullets drive into the surrounding medium. The short term variability seen in GRBs is set by the slowing-down time of the bullets while the overall duration of the burst is set by the lifetime of the central engine. A requirement of this model is that the ambient medium be dense, consistent with a strong stellar wind. The efficiency of the burst can be relatively high.

4 pages, 2 figures, revised version accepted by ApJ Letters

References in corpus (5)

• Jets in GRBs
• Optical and Radio Observations of the Afterglow from GRB990510: Evidence for a Jet
• BVRI Observations of the Optical Afterglow of GRB 990510
• Gamma-ray Burst Energetics
• Power Density Spectra of Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Internal Shock Model

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• Radio Lobe Dynamics and the Environment of Microquasars
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• Precession of neutrino-cooled accretion disks in gamma-ray burst engines
• Gravitational radiation from precessing accretion disks in gamma-ray bursts
• Cosmic Gamma-ray Bursts. Lectures Presented at XXVII ITEP Winter School
• Electromagnetic Catastrophe in Ultrarelativistic Shocks and the Prompt Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Gravitational Wave Memory from Gamma Ray Bursts' Jets
• Polarization signature of gamma-ray bursts from fragmented fireballs
• Quark-Novae in Low-Mass X-ray Binaries with massive neutron stars: A universal model for short-hard Gamma-Ray Bursts
• A Quark-Nova in the wake of a core-collapse Supernova: a unifying model for long duration Gamma-Ray Bursts and Fast Radio Bursts
• Supernovae in Helium Star--Compact Object Binaries: A Possible Gamma-ray Burst Mechanism
• Gravitational collapse of a spherical star with heat flow as a possible energy mechanism of gamma-ray bursts
• On the origin of bimodal duration distribution of Gamma Ray Bursts