1996/06/06 by P. Mészáros, P. Meszaros, M. J. Rees · 28 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/303625
published as Astrophys.J. 476 (1997) 232-237 · Submitted to Ap.J. (Letters) on 5/31/96; uuencoded latex file, 10 pages, uses AAS macro aaspp4.sty
arxiv created 1996/06/06 · openalex publication_date 1997/02/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We discuss the evolution of cosmological gamma-ray burst remnants, consisting of the cooling and expanding fireball ejecta together with any swept-up external matter, after the gamma-ray event. We show that significant optical emission is predicted, which should be measurable for timescales of hours after the event, and in some cases radio emission may be expected days to weeks after the event. The flux at optical, X-ray, and other long wavelengths decays as a power of time, and the initial value of the flux or magnitude, as well as the value of the time-decay exponent, should help to distinguish between possible types of dissipative fireball models.