Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor
Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much en...
| Published in: | Springer eBooks |
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cham :
Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer,
2014.
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| Series: | Springer Theses, Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research,
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06626-4 Перейти в каталог НБ ТГУ |
| Summary: | Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor. GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much energy over a < 100 second burst is still a mystery. The leading candidate for the GRB progenitor is currently a massive star which collapses to form a black hole-accretion disk system that powers the GRB. GRB afterglows, however, do not always show the expected behavior of a relativistic blast wave interacting with the stellar wind that such a progenitor should have produced before its collapse. In this book, the author uses the Zeus-MP astrophysical hydrodynamics code to model the environment around a stellar progenitor prior to the burst. He then develops a new semi-analytic MHD and emission model to produce light curves for GRBs encountering these realistic density profiles. The work ultimately shows that the circumburst medium surrounding a GRB at the time of the explosion is much more complex than a pure wind, and that observed afterglows are entirely consistent with a large subset of proposed stellar progenitors. |
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| Physical Description: | XIII, 111 p. 25 illus., 21 illus. in color. online resource. |
| ISBN: | 9783319066264 |
| ISSN: | 2190-5053 |