Dissipative Photosphere Models of Gamma-Ray Bursts and X-Ray Flashes

By M. Rees, P. Mészáros. 2004

423 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We consider dissipative effects occurring in the optically thick inner parts of the relativistic outflows producing gamma-ray bursts and X-ray flashes, emphasizing in particular the Comptonization of the thermal radiation flux that is advected from the base of the outflow. Such dissipative effects—e.g., from magnetic reconnection, neutron decay, or shocks would boost the energy density of the thermal radiation. The dissipation can lead to pair production, in which case the pairs create an effective photosphere farther out than the usual baryonic one. In a slow dissipation scenario, pair creation can be suppressed, and the effects are most important when dissipation occurs below the baryonic photosphere. In both cases an increased photospheric luminosity is obtained. We suggest that the spectral peak in gamma-ray bursts is essentially due to the Comptonized thermal component from the photosphere, where the comoving optical depth in the outflow falls to unity. Typical peak photon energies range between those of classical bursts and X-ray flashes. The relationship between the observed photon peak energy and the luminosity depends on the details of the dissipation, but under plausible assumptions can resemble the observed correlations.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ad30f2a62d7a10b4d09c4abca96aa34cc91bc709

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. Pawan Kumar
3. E. Liang
4. F. Ryde
5. Binbin Zhang
6. A. Pe’er
7. D. Giannios
8. B. Metzger

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. Bing Zhang
2. Pawan Kumar
3. D. Giannios
4. F. Ryde
5. J. McKinney
6. L. Amati
7. A. Pe’er
8. E. Liang

Citations in the corpus

• A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF FERMI GAMMA-RAY BURST DATA. I. SPECTRAL COMPONENTS AND THE POSSIBLE PHYSICAL ORIGINS OF LAT/GBM GRBs (2010, background): “Another possibility, advocated by Beloborodov (2010) and Lazzati & Begelman (2010) in view of the Fermi data (see also discussion by Thompson 1994; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Pe’er et al. 2006; Giannios & Spruit 2007; Fan 2009; Toma et al. 2010; and Ioka 2010), is that the Band component is the…”
• IDENTIFICATION AND PROPERTIES OF THE PHOTOSPHERIC EMISSION IN GRB090902B (2009, background): “DISCUSSION The presence of a strong photospheric component in GRB spectra has been discussed by several authors (e.g. Goodman 1986; Mészáros et al. 2002; Rees & Mészáros 2005)18.”
• Extending the Search for Muon Neutrinos Coincident with Gamma-Ray Bursts in IceCube Data (2017, methodology): “Three representative models are tested, the internal shock fireball model (Hümmer et al. 2012; Zhang & Kumar 2013), the photospheric fireball model (Rees & Mészáros 2005; Murase 2008; Zhang & Yan 2011), and the Internal Collision-induced Magnetic Reconnection and Turbulence (ICMART) model (Zhang &…”
• Making a Short Gamma-Ray Burst from a Long One: Implications for the Nature of GRB 060614 (2006, background): “Alternatively, a general positive dependence of Ep on Eiso is expected if Ep reflects the thermal peak of the fireball photosphere (Mészáros et al. 2002; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Ryde et al. 2006; Thompson et al. 2006).”
• DISCERNING THE PHYSICAL ORIGINS OF COSMOLOGICAL GAMMA-RAY BURSTS BASED ON MULTIPLE OBSERVATIONAL CRITERIA: THE CASES OF z = 6.7 GRB 080913, z = 8.2 GRB 090423, AND SOME SHORT/HARD GRBs (2009, background): “…contribution from the fireball photosphere (Thompson 1994; Mészáros & Rees 2000; Mészáros et al. 2002) has gained increasing attention recently (Rees & Mészáros 2005; Ryde 2005; Pe’er et al. 2007; Thompson et al. 2007; Ioka et al. 2007; Ghisellini et al. 2007; Ryde & Pe’er 2008; Lazzati…”
• Prompt emission spectra from the photosphere of a GRB (2006, background): “In the context of the internal shock model, for example, shocks can also take place close to the location of the photosphere, leading to modifications of the photospheric emission (Mészáros & Rees 2000; Ryde 2004; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Pe’er et al. 2005).”
• A theory of photospheric emission from relativistic, collimated outflows (2012, background): “…dissipation close to the photosphere has been considered as a way to modify the local comoving photon spectrum (Thompson 1994; Spruit et al. 2001; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Pe’er et al. 2005; Giannios & Spruit 2005; Pe’er et al. 2006; Lazzati et al. 2009; Beloborodov 2010; Ryde et al. 2011; Zhang…”
• GRB110721A: AN EXTREME PEAK ENERGY AND SIGNATURES OF THE PHOTOSPHERE (2012, background): “, i.e. 1010−1013 cm when accounting for 5 GRB bulk motions (e.g., see Rees & Mészáros 2005).”
• Collisional mechanism for gamma‐ray burst emission (2009, background): “As a possible solution, it was hypothesized that GRB spectra include a bright photospheric component which results from strong sub-photospheric heating (e.g. Rees & Mészáros 2005).”
• DETECTION OF A THERMAL SPECTRAL COMPONENT IN THE PROMPT EMISSION OF GRB 100724B (2010, background): “This expected photospheric emission in GRB spectra was early suggested on such theoretical grounds by Goodman (1986), Mészáros (2002), and Rees and Mészáros (2005), among others.”
• Model-independent Multivariable Gamma-Ray Burst Luminosity Indicator and Its Possible Cosmological Implications (2005, methodology): “Such an anti-correlation, when combined with the physical models of Eγ,iso−Ep correlations (e.g. Zhang & Mészáros 2002a; Rees & Mészáros 2005), may be able to inter- pret the observed Eiso(E ′ p, t ′ b) relation, although a detailed model is yet constructed.”
• The role of kink instability in Poynting-flux dominated jets (2006, background): “The role of the photospheric component and its connection to the observed spectral peaks of the GRB prompt emission in internal shock and slow dissipation models (like this one) has been studied in a number of recent papers (Ryde 2005; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Pe’er et al. 2005).”
• The Ep,i–Eiso correlation in gamma-ray bursts: updated observational status, re-analysis and main implications (2006, methodology): “For instance, for Comptonized emission from the photosphere one can derive the relations Ep,i ∝ ΓTpk ∝ Γ 2L−1/4 or Ep,i ∝ ΓTpk ∝ r0 −1/2L1/4 (where r0 is a particular distance between the central engine and the emitting region), depending on the assumptions made (Rees & Meśzaŕos 2005).”
• Physical Processes Shaping Gamma-Ray Burst X-Ray Afterglow Light Curves: Theoretical Implications from the Swift X-Ray Telescope Observations (2005, background): “…comes from the internal shocks due to the collisions among many engineejected shells (Rees &Mészáros 1994; Paczynski & Xu 1994) or is due to magnetic or other dissipation processes at a radius smaller than the fireball deceleration radius (e.g., Drenkhahn & Spruit 2002; Rees & Mészáros 2005).”
• A Reconnection Switch to Trigger gamma-Ray Burst Jet Dissipation (2010, methodology): “Such a dissipation is required by dissipative photosphere models (see e.g. Rees & Mészáros 2005).”
• The Hubble Diagram to Redshift >6 from 69 Gamma-Ray Bursts (2006, background): “The physics of the Epeak and E relation is well explained as a simple consequence of viewing geometry and relativistic effects within a standard jet model (Eichler & Levinson 2004; Yamazaki et al. 2004; Rees & Mészáros 2005; Levinson & Eichler 2005).”
• An Ordinary Short Gamma-Ray Burst with Extraordinary Implications: Fermi-GBM Detection of GRB 170817A (2017, result): “The basic properties (peak energy, spectral slope, and duration) of the main peak are broadly consistent with the leading prompt emission models (e.g. dissipative photosphere (Rees & Mészáros 2005) or internal shocks (Rees & Mészáros 1994)).”
• EVIDENCE OF AN INITIALLY MAGNETICALLY DOMINATED OUTFLOW IN GRB 080916C (2009, background): “It has been suggested that the observed Ep of GRBs may be the thermal peak of the photosphere emission (Rees & Mészáros 2005; Thompson et al. 2007), and that the Comptonization of the thermal emission may lead to a non-thermal spectrum above Ep (Pe’er et al. 2005, 2006).”
• QUASI-BLACKBODY COMPONENT AND RADIATIVE EFFICIENCY OF THE PROMPT EMISSION OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2008, background): “In addition, dissipation processes close to the photosphere (such as internal shocks or magnetic reconnections) can enhance this thermal component by forming a Comptonized spectral peak (Rees & Mészáros 2005).”