Modeling Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift-Fermi era
Abstract
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are short flashes (10 ms-100 s) of gamma-rays (keV-MeV). These very bright and variable events are followed by an afterglow detected from the X-ray to the optical and radio domains, which decays rapidly and vanishes in a few days/weeks. Their extreme luminosity make them detectable up to cosmological distances (at least to a redshift of 9). They are produced by relativistic jets launched by a newborn compact object. The gamma-ray emission is attributed to internal mechanisms occurring within the jet and the afterglow to the deceleration by the circumburst medium. The Swift satellite launched in 2004 has improved our knowledge of the afterglow (especially the early phase), while the Fermi satellite launched in 2008 has opened a new spectral window at high energy (above 100 MeV). My research work is in line with these recent observational breakthroughs which challenge the " standard " GRB model that was established in the 90s. I have developed numerical tools that are well adapted to model in a consistent way the different emission phases experienced by the relativistic jet, from the photosphere to the deceleration. Using these tools, I have obtained several results that contribute to a better understanding of GRB physics. Regarding the GRB itself, I developed a new approach to compute precisely the opacity seen by a high-energy photon that propagates within a ultra-relativistic jet. By comparing predictions to Fermi observations, I obtain critical constraints on the physical conditions in the relativistic jet (especially the Lorentz factor). I have also tried to identify observational signatures that could help to discriminate between different emission models : spectral (optical and high energy emission, thermal component) and temporal (transition to the afterglow) signatures. Regarding the afterglow, I have carried on the development of an alternative model - the 'reverse shock' model - recently proposed to explain !
the phenomenological complexity revealed by Swift. My theoretical developments focus on generic properties, but also on peculiar cases and tend to show that the reverse shock model explains more naturally than the standard model the diversity of observed behaviors.- Publication:
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Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- June 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhDT.......331H