No Arabic abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most extreme events in the Universe. As well as providing a natural laboratory for investigating fundamental physical processes, they might trace the cosmic star formation rate up to extreme redshifts and probe the composition of the intergalactic medium over most of the Universes history. Radio observations of GRBs play a key part in determining their physical properties, but currently they are largely limited to follow-up observations of $gamma$-ray-detected objects. The SKA will significantly increase our ability to study GRB afterglows, following up several hundred objects in the high frequency bands already in the early science implementation of the telescope. SKA1-MID Bands 4 (4 GHz) and 5 (9.2 GHz) will be particularly suited to the detection of these transient phenomena. The SKA will trace the peak of the emission, sampling the thick-to-thin transition of the evolving spectrum, and follow-up the afterglow down to the time the ejecta slow down to non-relativistic speeds. The full SKA will be able to observe the afterglows across the non-relativistic transition, for ~25% of the whole GRB population. This will allow us to get a significant insight into the true energy budget of GRBs, probe their surrounding density profile, and the shock microphysics. The SKA will also be able to routinely detect the elusive orphan afterglow emission, from the population of GRBs whose jets are not pointed towards the Earth. We expect that a deep all-sky survey such as SKA1-SUR will see around 300 orphan afterglows every week. We predict these detection to be >1000 when the full SKA telescope will be operational.
It is now more than 40 years since the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and in the last two decades there has been major progress in the observations of bursts, the afterglows and their host galaxies. This recent progress has been fueled by the ability of gamma-ray telescopes to quickly localise GRBs and the rapid follow-up observations with multi-wavelength instruments in space and on the ground. A total of 674 GRBs have been localised to date using the coded aperture masks of the four gamma-ray missions, BeppoSAX, HETE II, INTEGRAL and Swift. As a result there are now high quality observations of more than 100 GRBs, including afterglows and host galaxies, revealing the richness and progress in this field. The observations of GRBs cover more than 20 orders of magnitude in energy, from 10^-5 eV to 10^15 eV and also in two non-electromagnetic channels, neutrinos and gravitational waves. However the continuation of progress relies on space based instruments to detect and rapidly localise GRBs and distribute the coordinates.
Since its launch in April 2007, the AGILE satellite detected with its Gamma-Ray Imaging Detector (GRID) several blazars at high significance: 3C 279, 3C 454.3, PKS 1510-089, S5 0716+714, 3C 273, W Comae, Mrk 421 and PKS 0537-441. Moreover, AGILE was able both to rapidly respond to sudden changes in blazar activity state at other wavelengths and to alert other telescopes quickly in response to changes in the gamma-ray fluxes. Thus, we were able to obtain multiwavelength data from other observatories such as Spitzer, Swift, RXTE, Suzaku, INTEGRAL, MAGIC, VERITAS, as well as radio-to-optical coverage by means of the GASP Project of the WEBT and REM. This large multifrequency coverage gave us the opportunity to study the Spectral Energy Distribution of these sources from radio to gamma-rays energy bands and to investigate the different mechanisms responsible for their emission. We present an overview of the AGILE results on these gamma-ray blazars and the relative multifrequency data.
The Fermi GBM Catalog has been recently published. Previous classification analyses of the BATSE, RHESSI, BeppoSAX, and Swift databases found three types of gamma-ray bursts. Now we analyzed the GBM catalog to classify the GRBs. PCA and Multiclustering analysis revealed three groups. Validation of these groups, in terms of the observed variables, shows that one of the groups coincides with the short GRBs. The other two groups split the long class into a bright and dim part, as defined by the peak flux. Additional analysis is needed to determine whether this splitting is only a mathematical byproduct of the analysis or has some real physical meaning.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) display a bimodal duration distribution, with a separation between the short- and long-duration bursts at about 2 sec. The progenitors of long GRBs have been identified as massive stars based on their association with Type Ic core-collapse supernovae, their exclusive location in star-forming galaxies, and their strong correlation with bright ultraviolet regions within their host galaxies. Short GRBs have long been suspected on theoretical grounds to arise from compact object binary mergers (NS-NS or NS-BH). The discovery of short GRB afterglows in 2005, provided the first insight into their energy scale and environments, established a cosmological origin, a mix of host galaxy types, and an absence of associated supernovae. In this review I summarize nearly a decade of short GRB afterglow and host galaxy observations, and use this information to shed light on the nature and properties of their progenitors, the energy scale and collimation of the relativistic outflow, and the properties of the circumburst environments. The preponderance of the evidence points to compact object binary progenitors, although some open questions remain. Based on this association, observations of short GRBs and their afterglows can shed light on the on- and off-axis electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave sources from the Advanced LIGO/Virgo experiments.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were first detected thanks to their prompt emission, which was the only information available for decades. In 2010, while the high-energy prompt emission remains the main tool for the detection and the first localization of GRB sources, our understanding of this crucial phase of GRBs has made great progress. We discuss some recent advances in this field, like the occasional detection of the prompt emission at all wavelengths, from optical to GeV; the existence of sub-luminous GRBs; the attempts to standardize GRBs; and the possible detection of polarization in two very bright GRBs. Despite these advances, tantalizing observational and theoretical challenges still exist, concerning the detection of the faintest GRBs, the panchromatic observation of GRBs from their very beginning, the origin of the prompt emission, or the understanding of the physics at work during this phase. Significant progress on this last topic is expected with SVOM thanks to the observation of dozens of GRBs from optical to MeV during the burst itself, and the measure of the redshift for the majority of them. SVOM will also change our view of the prompt GRB phase in another way. Within a few years, the sensitivity of sky surveys at optical and radio frequencies, and outside the electromagnetic domain in gravitational waves or neutrinos, will allow them to detect several new types of transient signals, and SVOM will be uniquely suited to identify which of these transients are associated with GRBs. This radically novel look at GRBs may elucidate the complex physics producing these bright flashes.