Gamma-ray bursts as the death throes of massive binary stars

Ramesh Narayan*, Bohdan Paczyński, Tsvi Piran

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1206 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose that gamma-ray bursts are created in the mergers of double neutron star binaries and black hole neutron star binaries at cosmological distances. Two different processes provide the electromagnetic energy for the bursts: neutrino-antineutrino annihilation into electron-positron pairs during the merger, and magnetic flares generated by the Parker instability in a postmerger differentially rotating disk. In both cases, an optically thick fireball of size ≲ 100 km is initially created, which expands ultrarelativistically to large radii before radiating. The scenario is only qualitative at this time, but it eliminates many previous objections to the cosmological merger model. The strongest bursts should be found close to, but not at the centers of, gal-axies at redshifts of order 0.1, and should be accompanied by bursts of gravitational radiation from the spiraling-in binary which could be detected by LIGO.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L83-L86
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume395
Issue number2 PART 2
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Aug 1992

Keywords

  • Accretion, accretion disks
  • Black hole physics
  • Gamma rays: bursts
  • Gravitation
  • Magnetic fields
  • Stars: neutron

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