Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Apr 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aps..apr.x6007b&link_type=abstract
American Physical Society, April Meeting, Jointly Sponsored with the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the American As
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Scientific paper
The popular perception in recent models of gamma-ray bursts is that the optical and radio afterglows result from the external shock interface, while the prompt transient gamma-ray signal arises from multiple shocks internal to the expansion. This paper illustrates a number of acceleration properties of relativistic shocks that pertain to GRB models and interpretation of the BATSE/EGRET data, by way of a standard Monte Carlo simulation. Computations of the spectral shape, the range of spectral indices, anisotropies, and the energy gain per shock crossing are presented, as functions of the shock speed and the type of particle scattering. It is apparent that while parallel shocks can efficiently accelerate particles, and these environments resemble those expected in GRB internal shocks, perpendicular ones cannot unless the particle diffusion is almost isotropic, i.e. extremely close to the Bohm limit. Since the external GRB shock wave is effectively perpendicular nearly everywhere, the positive EGRET detections of bursts strongly suggest that the hard gamma-ray emission more plausibly arises from mildly-relativistic internal shocks of varying field obliquities, generating a spread in EGRET spectral indices. Implications for external shock scenarios and afterglow emission are also discussed.
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