We propose that spontaneous particle--anti-particle pair creations from the discharged vacuum caused by the strong interactions in dense matter are major sources of $gamma$-ray bursts. Two neutron star collisions or black hole-neutron star mergers at cosmological distance could produce a compact object with its density exceeding the critical density for pair creations. The emitted anti-particles annihilate with corresponding particles at the ambient medium. This releases a large amount of energy. We discuss the spontaneous $pbar{p}$ pair creations within two neutron star collision and estimate the exploded energy from $pbar{p}$ annihilation processes. The total energy could be around $10^{51} - 10^{53}$ erg depending on the impact parameter of colliding neutron stars. This value fits well into the range of the initial energy of the most energetic $gamma$-ray bursts.
A theory is proposed to explain with simplicity the basic observed properties of a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB). It employs a well-known result of Schwinger, that static electric fields in excess of a critical value are unstable to pair creation, and catastrophically produces a thermal plasma at temperatures <= 0.5 MeV. By using observational values for the energy and volume of the source, it is shown that the radiation pressure of an expanding GRB `fireball leads to the formation of a Schwinger critical field at the ambient medium immediately outside the `fireball. This naturally provides a runaway solution which is inevitable, and which must involve a burst of gamma radiation in the core of the observed energy range and in an optically thin environment. The observed burst duration of 1 -- 10 seconds is also a straightforward consequence of the theory.
We extract 18 candidate short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) with precursors from 660 SGRBs observed by {em Fermi} and {em Swift} satellites, and carry out a comprehensive analysis on their temporal and spectral features. We obtain the following results: (1) For a large fraction of candidates, the main burst durations are longer than their precursor durations, comparable to their quiescent times from the end of precursors to the beginning of their main bursts. (2) The average flux of precursors tends to increase as their main bursts brighten. (3) As seen from the distributions of hardness ratio and spectral fitting, the precursors are slightly spectrally softer with respect to the main bursts. Moreover, a significant portion of precursors and all main bursts favor a non-thermal spectrum. (4) The precursors might be a probe of the progenitor properties of SGRBs such as the magnetic field strength and the crustal equation of state if they arise from some processes before mergers of binary compact objects rather than post-merger processes.
The recent discoveries of X-ray lines in the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) provide significant clues to the nature of GRB progenitors and central environments. However, the iron line interpretation by fluorescence or recombination mechanism requires a large amount of iron material. We argue that the very strong iron line could be attributed to an alternative mechanism: Cerenkov line emission since relativistic electrons and dense medium exist near GRB sites. Therefore, the broad iron lines are expected, and line intensity will be nearly independent of the iron abundance, the medium with the anomalously high Fe abundance is not required.
Coalescing binary systems, consisting of two collapsed objects, are among the most promising sources of high frequency gravitational waves signals detectable, in principle, by ground-based interferometers. Binary systems of Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers should also give rise to short Gamma Ray Bursts, a subclass of Gamma Ray Bursts. Short-hard-Gamma Ray Bursts might thus provide a powerful way to infer the merger rate of two-collapsed object binaries. Under the hypothesis that most short Gamma Ray Bursts originate from binaries of Neutron Star or Black Hole/Neutron Star mergers, we outline here the possibility to associate short Gamma Ray Bursts as electromagnetic counterpart of coalescing binary systems.
Different forms of long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) Luminosity Functions are considered on the basis of an explicit physical model. The inferred flux distributions are compared with the observed ones from two samples of GRBs, Swift and Fermi GBM. The best fit parameters of the Luminosity functions are found and the physical interpretations are discussed. The results are consistent with the observation of a comparable number of flat phase afterglows and monotonic decreasing ones.