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Searching for the Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitor

Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor.  GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much en...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Clasificación:Libro Electrónico
Autor principal: Mesler III, Robert Allan (Autor)
Autor Corporativo: SpringerLink (Online service)
Formato: Electrónico eBook
Idioma:Inglés
Publicado: Cham : Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Springer, 2014.
Edición:1st ed. 2014.
Colección:Springer Theses, Recognizing Outstanding Ph.D. Research,
Temas:
Acceso en línea:Texto Completo
Descripción
Sumario:Nominated as an outstanding thesis by the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of New Mexico, this thesis seeks to identify the gamma-ray burst (GRB) progenitor.  GRBs are extragalactic explosions that briefly outshine entire galaxies, but the mechanism that can release that much energy over a < 100 second burst is still a mystery.  The leading candidate for the GRB progenitor is currently a massive star which collapses to form a black hole-accretion disk system that powers the GRB.  GRB afterglows, however, do not always show the expected behavior of a relativistic blast wave interacting with the stellar wind that such a progenitor should have produced before its collapse. In this book, the author uses the Zeus-MP astrophysical hydrodynamics code to model the environment around a stellar progenitor prior to the burst.  He then develops a new semi-analytic MHD and emission model to produce light curves for GRBs encountering these realistic density profiles.  The work ultimately shows that the circumburst medium surrounding a GRB at the time of the explosion is much more complex than a pure wind, and that observed afterglows are entirely consistent with a large subset of proposed stellar progenitors.
Descripción Física:XIII, 111 p. 25 illus., 21 illus. in color. online resource.
ISBN:9783319066264
ISSN:2190-5061