A γ‐ray burst occurs when a strongly magnetic neutron star experiences either a thermonuclear explosion in degenerate material accumulated over a long period of time or the sudden, brief, greatly super‐Eddington accretion of matter. Certain aspects of the thermonuclear model are briefly reviewed and the necessity that low‐luminosity pulsars (e.g. X‐Per) occasionally undergo nuclear runaways stressed (although X‐Per is obviously not the prototypical burster). Greatest attention is devoted to mechanisms for producing the hard spectrum of γ‐ray bursts. A leading candidate utilizes the high (parallel) temperature developed behind an accretion shock. Hard radiation is produced by inverse Compton as cyclotron photons emitted beneath the shock diffuse out. The shock itself may be a consequence of either nuclear explosion at a conjugate point or accretion and may be collisionless in nature. A new model for the production of optical flashes accompanying γ‐ray bursts is developed which relies upon the cyclotron emission of electrons at ∼108 cm (in a wind or accretion flux) pumped by Compton collisions with γ‐rays from the burst. Strong optical flashes should only come from strongly magnetic neutron stars, the optical emission should be coincident with the γ‐emission, and the optical radiation may be polarized.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
26 May 1984
High Energy Transients in Astrophysics
11-22 July 1983
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Research Article|
May 26 1984
The theory of gamma‐ray bursts
S. E. Woosley
S. E. Woosley
Board of Studies in Astronomy and Astrophysics University of California, Santa Cruz CA 95064
Special Studies Group, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore CA 94550
Search for other works by this author on:
AIP Conf. Proc. 115, 485–511 (1984)
Citation
S. E. Woosley; The theory of gamma‐ray bursts. AIP Conf. Proc. 26 May 1984; 115 (1): 485–511. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.34555
Download citation file:
Pay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Citing articles via
Inkjet- and flextrail-printing of silicon polymer-based inks for local passivating contacts
Zohreh Kiaee, Andreas Lösel, et al.
Design of a 100 MW solar power plant on wetland in Bangladesh
Apu Kowsar, Sumon Chandra Debnath, et al.
Effect of coupling agent type on the self-cleaning and anti-reflective behaviour of advance nanocoating for PV panels application
Taha Tareq Mohammed, Hadia Kadhim Judran, et al.