X-ray flashes
Abstract
X-ray flashes XRFs are explosive events very similar to gamma-ray bursts GRBs except that the larger fraction of their radiated energy is in the X-ray band below 30 keV rather the gamma-ray band above 30 keV Like most GRBs their photon spectra can be modeled by power-law or broken power-law Band function or power-law with exponential cut off though their spectral peak energies are lower There is strong evidence that the properties of XRFs form a continuum with those of ordinary GRBs therefore XRFs represent a class of of GRBs at the soft end of the spectrum Understanding of the origin of the deviation in their spectral parameters from the ordinary GRBs should lead to better understanding of the mechanism of GRBs Their cosmological origin is confirmed by identification of several XRFs in distant galaxies using associated optical transient Although some of them are found in low redshifts there are also XRFs with very faint host galaxies with little clue for their redshifts I will try to review the properties and identification of XRFs based on the satellite-based e g BeppoSAX HETE-2 and Swift observations and the ground-based follow-up observations
- Publication:
-
36th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006cosp...36.3547K