The Propagation and Eruption of Relativistic Jets from the Stellar Progenitors of Gamma-Ray Bursts

By Weiqun Zhang, Stan Woosley, A. H. Ucsc, Lanl, U. Chicago. 2003

204 citations recorded by the source corpus.

New two- and three-dimensional calculations are presented of relativistic jet propagation and break out in massive Wolf-Rayet stars. Such jets are thought to be responsible for gamma-ray bursts. As it erupts, the highly relativistic jet core (3° to 5°; Γ ≳ 100) is surrounded by a cocoon of less energetic, but still moderately relativistic ejecta (Γ ~ 15) that expands and becomes visible at larger polar angles (~10°). These less energetic ejecta may be the origin of X-ray flashes and other high-energy transients, which will be visible to a larger fraction of the sky, albeit to a shorter distance than common gamma-ray bursts. Jet stability is also examined in three-dimensional calculations. If the jet changes angle by more than 3° in several seconds, it will dissipate, producing a broad beam with inadequate Lorentz factor to make a common gamma-ray burst. This may be an alternate way to make X-ray flashes.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a019d6cd7f214792acddee501fd087b3bafaad37

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. Pawan Kumar
3. B. Metzger
4. Stan Woosley
5. P. Mészáros
6. N. Gehrels
7. E. Nakar
8. Alexander Heger

Citations in the corpus

• The Supernova Gamma-Ray Burst Connection (2006, background): “The radius of even a blue supergiant is several hundred light seconds and the head of the jet which is to make the GRB travels significantly slower than light while inside the star (Zhang et al., 2003, 2004).”
• Physical Processes Shaping Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves: Theoretical Implications from the Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations (2005, background): “In principle, GRB jets could be structured (Zhang & Mészáros 2002b; Rossi et al. 2002; Zhang et al. 2004a; Kumar & Granot 2003).”
• The Progenitor Stars of Gamma-Ray Bursts (2005, background): “This is consistent with the theoretical expectation that even a relativistic jet cannot escape a blue or red supergiant with enough energy to make a GRB that lasts only tens of seconds (Woosley 1993; MacFadyen & Woosley 1999; Zhang et al. 2004).”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2007, methodology): “This factor is currently not included in most GRB population studies (e.g., Perna et al. 2003; Lloyd-Ronning et al. 2004; Zhang et al. 2004a; Lambet al. 2005a; Dai & Zhang 2005; Guetta et al. 2005; Lin et al. 2005; Xu et al. 2005b; Liang et al. 2006c, etc.).”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2009, background): “This is because in such stars, a stellar envelope will remain to impede the advance of the jet (MacFadyen and Woosley 1999, MacFadyen et al. 2001, Mészáros and Rees 2001, Aloy et al. 2000, Ramirez-Ruiz et al. 2002a, Matzner 2003, Zhang et al. 2004, Proga et al. 2003).”
• Temporal and Angular Properties of Gamma-Ray Burst Jets Emerging from Massive Stars (2006, methodology): “Second, Zhang et al. (2004) consider a small range of angles for their 3 fit (3 < < 15 ).”
• THE LARGE AREA TELESCOPE ON THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY SPACE TELESCOPE MISSION (2009, background): “Long-duration bursts are typically found in star-forming regions of galaxies and are sometimes associated with supernovae, indicating thatthe burst mechanism is associated with the collapse of very massive stars (Zhang et al. 2004).”
• Stability of relativistic jets from rotating, accreting black holes via fully three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations (2008, background): “Simulations range from injecting an arbitrary jet from a surfaceinl t (e.g. Nakamura & Meier 2004; Zhang et al. 2004; Leismann et al. 2005; Komissarov et al. 2008; Moll et al. 2008) to injecting a jet from an unresolved Keplerian disc (e.g., Tchekhovskoy et al. 2008), and to evolving both the disc…”
• The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets (2014, methodology): “Nakar, E., Piran, T., Granot, J., Nov. 2002.”
• A Million Second Chandra View of Cassiopeia A (2004, background): “Alternatively, an underdense relativistic jet could be driven by a collapsar (see Zhang et al. 2004; Nagataki et al. 2003).”