Relativistic fireballs: energy conversion and time-scales
M. J. ReesInstitute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HAP. MészárosDepartment of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
1992en
ABI
Abstract
The expansion energy of a relativistic fireball can be reconverted into radiation when it interacts with an external medium. For expansion with Lorentz factors ≳ 103 into a typical galactic environment, the corresponding time-scale in the frame of the observer is of the order of seconds. This mechanism would operate in any cosmological scenario of gamma-ray bursts involving initial energies of order a per cent of a stellar rest mass, and implies photon energies and time-scales compatible with those observed in gamma-ray bursts.
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