Gamma-ray bursts: Modeling electron-positron pair plasmas in cataclysmic astrophysical phenomena.

摘要

Despite three decades of intense scientific scrutiny, gamma-ray bursts have remained one of astronomy's biggest unsolved mysteries. Recent observational breakthroughs have allowed us to learn much about these big, brief, brilliant bangs seen from across the cosmos, but their origin remains a mystery. In this work we study three progenitor models: a neutron star binary system near its last stable orbit, a charged black hole, and the collapse of a globular star cluster. All of these scenarios result in a common theme; the relativistic expansion of a super-heated electron-positron-photon plasma. Thus we study the evolution of, and emission from, this plasma as it might result from these three progenitors using numerical general relativistic hydrodynamic simulations. This emission is then compared with that of gamma-ray bursts to test the feasibility of each of these models as a gamma-ray burst progenitor.