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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Bright X-ray Flares in Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

TLDR
Two bright x-ray flares in GRB afterglows, including a giant flare comparable in total energy to the burst itself, each peaking minutes after the burst, imply that the central engines of the bursts have long periods of activity.
Abstract
Gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows have provided important clues to the nature of these massive explosive events, providing direct information on the nearby environment and indirect information on the central engine that powers the burst. We report the discovery of two bright x-ray flares in GRB afterglows, including a giant flare comparable in total energy to the burst itself, each peaking minutes after the burst. These strong, rapid x-ray flares imply that the central engines of the bursts have long periods of activity, with strong internal shocks continuing for hundreds of seconds after the gamma-ray emission has ended.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

The Supernova Gamma-Ray Burst Connection

TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that most long-duration soft-spectrum gamma-ray bursts are accompanied by massive stellar explosions (GRB-SNe) and that most of the energy in the explosion is contained in nonrelativistic ejecta (producing the supernova) rather than in the relativistic jets responsible for making the burst and its afterglow.
Journal ArticleDOI

Gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR: In this article, the interplay between these observations and theoretical models of the prompt gamma-ray burst and its afterglow is reviewed, and a model of the burst's origin and mechanism is proposed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts

TL;DR: A review of nearly a decade of short gamma-ray bursts and their afterglow and host-galaxy observations is presented in this article, where the authors use this information to shed light on the nature and properties of their progenitors, the energy scale and collimation of the relativistic outflow, and the properties of the circumburst environments.
Journal ArticleDOI

The physics of gamma-ray bursts & relativistic jets

TL;DR: A comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered, can be found in this paper.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

The Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission

Neil Gehrels, +77 more
TL;DR: The Swift mission as discussed by the authors is a multi-wavelength observatory for gamma-ray burst (GRB) astronomy, which is a first-of-its-kind autonomous rapid-slewing satellite for transient astronomy and pioneers the way for future rapid-reaction and multiwavelength missions.
Journal ArticleDOI

Gamma-ray bursts from stellar mass accretion disks around black holes

TL;DR: In this paper, a cosmological model for gamma-ray bursts is explored in which the radiation is produced as a broadly beamed pair fireball along the rotation axis of an accreting black hole.
Journal ArticleDOI

Collapsars: Gamma-ray bursts and explosions in 'failed supernovae'

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the continued evolution of rotating helium stars, Mα 10 M☉, in which iron-core collapse does not produce a successful outgoing shock but instead forms a black hole of 2-3 Mˉ.
Journal ArticleDOI

Optical and long wavelength afterglow from gamma-ray bursts

TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the evolution of cosmological gamma-ray burst remnants, consisting of the cooling and expanding fireball ejecta together with any swept-up external matter.
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