Gamma-ray bursts from minijets

Nir J. Shaviv*, Arnon Dar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

102 Scopus citations

Abstract

Striking similarities exist between high-energy gamma-ray emission from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). They suggest that GRBs are generated by inverse Compton scattering from highly relativistic electrons in transient jets. Such jets may be produced along the axis of an accretion disk formed around stellar black holes (BHs) or neutron stars (NSs) in BH-NS and NS-NS mergers and in accretion induced collapse of magnetized white dwarfs (WDs) or neutron stars in close binary systems. Such events may produce the cosmological GRBs. Transient jets formed by single old magnetized neutron stars in an extended Galactic halo may produce a local population of GRBs. Here we show that jet production of GRBs by inverse Compton scattering can explain quite simply the striking correlations that exist between various temporal features of GRBs, their duration histogram, the power spectrum of their complex multipeak light curves, their power-law high energy spectra and other features of GRBs. Some additional predictions are made including the expected polarization of gamma rays in the bursts.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)863-873
Number of pages11
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume447
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Jul 1995
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Gamma rays: bursts
  • Radiation mechanisms: nonthermal
  • Stars: neutron

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