1995/07/30 by Tsvi Piran, Piran, Tsvi
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9507114
34 pages, uuencoded also available at ftp://shemesh.fiz.huji.ac.il or at http://shemesh.fiz.huji.ac.il/grb_uns.ps to appear in the Proceedings of ``Some Unsoved Problems in Astrophysics", Princeton April 1995, Eds. J. Bahcall and J. Osriker
arxiv created 1995/07/30 · openalex publication_date 1995/07/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
γ-ray bursts (GRBs) have puzzled astronomers since their accidental discovery in the sixties. The BATSE detector on COMPTON-GRO satellite has been detecting GRBs for the last four years at a rate of one burst per day. Its findings has revolutionized our ideas about the nature of these objects. In this lecture I show that the simplest, most conventional and practically inevitable, interpretation of the observations is that GRBs form during the conversion of the kinetic energy of ultra-relativistic particles to radiation. The inner ``engine" that accelerates these particles is well hidden from direct observations and its origin might remain mysterious for a long time.