"The Largest Explosions
in The Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts and Their Afterglow"
Dr.
Re'em Sari
Theoretical
Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology
The origin of GRBs have been a mystery for almost 30 years. Their sources
emit a huge amount of energy on short time scales and the process involves
extreme relativistic motion with bulk Lorentz factor of at least a few
hundred. In recent years, "afterglow", emission in X-ray, optical, IR,
and radio was detected. The afterglow can be measured up to months and
even years after the few seconds GRB. We review the theory for the gamma-rays
emission and the afterglow and show that it is strongly supported by observations.
A recent detection of optical emission simultaneous with the GRB, well
agrees with theoretical predictions and further constrains the free parameters
of the models. We discuss the evidence that some of the bursts are jets,
and discuss the prospects of polarization measurements. We review some
of the recent clues for the progenitor of these enigmatic events.
Host:
Dr. Ron Lifshitz, x5145
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