Wednesday, January 18, 2012
4:00 pm
Cahill Center, Hameetman Auditorium
Astronomy Colloquium
Series:Astronomy Colloquium
Emission Mechanism of Gamma-Ray Bursts
Andrei Beloborodov, Columbia University
Gamma-ray bursts are emitted by super-powerful ultra-relativistic jets
from compact engines, most likely just born black holes or magnetars.
A long debated problem is how the jet emits the observed gamma rays.
A simplest model resembles the big bang: the opaque hot plasma expands
to transparency and releases its thermal photons. The expected spectrum
from a radiation-dominated jet is Planckian with a peak around 1 MeV.
The observed burst spectra do peak around 1 MeV, however they have
non-Plankian shapes, with extended high-energy tails. Physical
processes generating non-Plankian radiation will be discussed. The old
phenomenological model of synchrotron emission from internal shocks
is currently experiencing a crisis -- it appears to contradict both shock
physics and observations. I will describe a different emission mechanism:
internal motions in the neutron-proton jet generate electron heat via nuclear
and Coulomb collisions, and the electrons radiate the received energy.
This mechanism invokes no phenomenological parameters, and the
produced radiation can be calculated from first principles. Remarkably,
the predicted spectra agree with observations. I will also discuss the
central engine and the mechanism driving the jet. The jet may be a
strongly magnetized outflow driven by rotation of the central object.
Alternatively, the jet may be driven by thermal pressure due to neutrino
heating around the central object. Both mechanisms can supply the
observed luminosities, but require extreme rotation rates and magnetic fields.
Contact Gina Armas gina@its.caltech.edu at 4671
For more information see http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~gma/colloquia.html
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