No Arabic abstract
We present MCRaT, a Monte Carlo Radiation Transfer code for self-consistently computing the light curves and spectra of the photospheric emission from relativistic, unmagnetized jets. We apply MCRaT to a relativistic hydrodynamic simulation of a long duration gamma-ray burst jet, and present the resulting light-curves and time-dependent spectra for observers at various angles from the jet axis. We compare our results to observational results and find that photospheric emission is a viable model to explain the prompt phase of long-duration gamma-ray bursts at the peak frequency and above, but faces challenges in reproducing the flat spectrum below the peak frequency. We finally discuss possible limitations of these results both in terms of the hydrodynamics and the radiation transfer and how these limitations could affect the conclusions that we present.
Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) are the signatures of extraordinarily high-energy events occurring in our universe. Since their discovery, we have determined that these events are produced during the core-collapse deaths of rare young massive stars. The host galaxies of LGRBs are an excellent means of probing the environments and populations that produce their unusual progenitors. In addition, these same young stellar progenitors makes LGRBs and their host galaxies valuable potentially powerful tracers of star formation and metallicity at high redshifts. However, properly utilizing LGRBs as probes of the early universe requires a thorough understanding of their formation and the host environments that they sample. This review looks back at some of the recent work on LGRB host galaxies that has advanced our understanding of these events and their cosmological applications, and considers the many new questions that we are poised to pursue in the coming years.
It is generally believed that the variability of photospheric emission in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) traces that of the jet power. This work further investigates the variability of photospheric emission in a variable jet. By setting a constant $eta$ (dimensionless entropy of the jet), we find that the light curve of the photospheric emission shows a ``tracking pattern on the time profile of jet power. However, the relative variability is significantly low in the photospheric emission compared with that in the jet power. If the $eta$ is genetic variable, the variability of the photospheric emission is not only limited by the jet power but also affected by $eta$ strongly. It becomes complex and is generally different from that of the jet power. Moreover, the opposite phase may stand in the variabilities of the photospheric emission at different photon energies. We also find that the relative variability does not remain constant over the photon energies with an obvious reduction at a certain energy. This is consistent with the analysis of GRB 090902B in which an appreciable thermal component has been detected in a wide energy range. For several other GRBs coupling with the thermal component, we conservatively evaluate the variability of the thermal and non-thermal emission, respectively. Our results show that the relative variability of the thermal emission is likely comparable to that of the non-thermal emission for these bursts. In addition, the analysis of GRB~120323A reveals that the variability of the photospheric emission may be of the opposite phase from that of the non-thermal emission.
Among the more than 1000 gamma-ray bursts observed by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, a large fraction show narrow and hard spectra inconsistent with non-thermal emission, signifying optically thick emission from the photosphere. However, only a few of these bursts have spectra consistent with a pure Planck function. We will discuss the observational features of photospheric emission in these GRBs as well as in the ones showing multi-component spectra. We interpret the observations in light of models of subphotospheric dissipation, geometrical broadening and multi-zone emission, and show what we can learn about the dissipation mechanism and properties of GRB jets.
Decades ago two classes of gamma-ray bursts were identified and delineated as having durations shorter and longer than about 2 s. Subsequently indications also supported the existence of a third class. Using maximum likelihood estimation we analyze the duration distribution of 888 Swift BAT bursts observed before October 2015. Fitting three log-normal functions to the duration distribution of the bursts provides a better fit than two log-normal distributions, with 99.9999% significance. Similarly to earlier results, we found that a fourth component is not needed. The relative frequencies of the distribution of the groups are 8% for short, 35% for intermediate and 57% for long bursts which correspond to our previous results. We analyse the redshift distribution for the 269 GRBs of the 888 GRBs with known redshift. We find no evidence for the previously suggested difference between the long and intermediate GRBs redshift distribution. The observed redshift distribution of the 20 short GRBs differs with high significance from the distributions of the other groups.
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.