Prompt Emission and Early Optical Afterglow of Very-high-energy Detected GRB 201015A and GRB 201216C: Onset of the External Forward Shock

Martin Jelínek, Jan Štrobl and René Hudec from ASU and student Alžběta Maleňáková from the Astronomical Institute of Charles University were part of a large international team that was involved in a very detailed study of two interesting gamma-ray bursts. The paper looks at the descriptive properties of the bursts, but more importantly it tries to find out what causes them and what mechanisms drive their energy jets.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are sudden, intense explosions of electromagnetic radiation with significant effects in the high-energy spectrum in the kiloelectron and megaelectron range. The total energy released in these explosions is in the order of 1044 to 1047 joules. GRBs typically emit radiation in two successive phases. First there is an instantaneous emission, mainly of photons with energies around 1 megaelectronvolt, which corresponds to the range of hard X-rays and soft gamma rays. This is followed by the so-called afterglow, which manifests itself in lower energy regions, for example in the optical range.

More / Source: web ASU

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