Stability of fireballs and gamma-ray bursts

Eli Waxman*, Tsvi Piran

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Fireballs are an essential part of any cosmological γ-ray burst. We derive a stability criterion for fireballs and show that fireballs are Rayleigh-Taylor unstable in any region in which the entropy decreases outward. The instability begins to operate when the fireball becomes matter dominated. Among the possible implications of the instability are the following: (1) Conversion of a fraction of the radiation energy to a convective energy expressed in the motion of bubbles relative to each other. (2) Penetration of fast bubbles through slower ones and creation of high-γ regimes which are essential for efficient conversion of the energy to γ-rays. (3) Formation of rapid time variation (of the scale of the bubbles) in the observed γ-rays.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)L85-L88
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume433
Issue number2 PART 2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 1994

Keywords

  • Gamma rays: bursts
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Relativity

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