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In February 2006, Swift caught a gamma-ray burst (GRB) in the act of turning into a supernova, and made the first ever direct observations of the break-out and early expansion of a supernova shock wave. GRB 060218 began with an exceptionally long burst of non-thermal gamma-rays, lasting over 2000s, as a jet erupted through the surface of the star. While this was in progress, an optically-thick thermal component from the shock wave of the supernova explosion grew to prominence, and we were able to track the mildly relativistic expansion of this shell as the blackbody peak moved from the X-rays into the UV and optical bands. The initial radius of the shock implied that it was a blue supergiant that had exploded, but the lack of hydrogen emission lines in the supernova spectrum indicated a more compact star. The most likely scenario is that the shock ploughed into the massive stellar wind of a Wolf–Rayet progenitor, with the shock breaking-out and becoming visible to us once it reached the radius where the wind became optically-thin. I present the Swift observations of this landmark event, and discuss the new questions and answers it leaves us with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review the current status of the use of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as probes of the early Universe and cosmology. I describe the promise of long GRBs as probes of the high redshift (z>4) and very high redshift (z>5) Universe, and several key scientific results that have come from observations made possible by accurate, rapid localizations of these bursts by Swift. I then estimate the fraction of long GRBs that lie at very high redshifts and discuss ways in which it may be possible to rapidly identify—and therefore study—a larger number of these bursts. Finally, I discuss the ways in which both long and short GRBs can be made ‘standard candles’ and used to constrain the properties of dark energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a brief review of short hard bursts (SHBs) from previous missions and from Swift-BAT; in particular, a review of the developing class of gamma-ray bursts which are similar to SHBs in that they have the short hard initial spike (0.1 to a few seconds), but that they also have a long extended phase of soft emission (50–200s). Further, we suggest that a class of events discovered by Horvath in the T90 versus hardness ratio plane is this SHB with extended emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I will describe the prospects for future investigations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in the ‘electromagnetic’ domain, by giving a brief overview of some near future facilities. I will discuss in some detail one of the most (if not the most) exciting perspective in the field, the use of GRBs as cosmological beacons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present results from magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a gaseous envelope collapsing onto a black hole (BH). These results support the notion that the collapsar model is one of the most promising scenarios to explain the huge release of energy in a matter of seconds associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Additionally, the MHD simulations show that at late times, when the mass supply rate is expected to decrease, the region in the vicinity of the BH can play an important role in determining the rate of accretion, its time behaviour and ultimately the energy output. In particular, the magnetic flux accumulated around the BH can repeatedly stop and then restart the energy release. As proposed by Proga & Zhang, the episode or episodes of reoccurrence of accretion processes can correspond to X-ray flares discovered recently in a number of GRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A thermal radiative component is likely to accompany the first stages of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and X-ray flashes. We analyse the effect of such a component on the observable spectrum, assuming that the observable effects are due to a dissipation process occurring below or near the thermal photosphere. For comparable energy densities in the thermal and leptonic components, the dominant emission mechanism is Compton scattering. This leads to a nearly flat energy spectrum (νFν∝ν0) above the thermal peak at approximately 10–100keV and below 10–100MeV, for a wide range of optical depths 0.03≲τ≲100, regardless of the details of the dissipation mechanism or the strength of the magnetic field. For higher values of the optical depth, a Wien peak is formed at 100keV to 1MeV. In particular, these results are applicable to the internal shock model of GRBs, as well as to slow dissipation models, e.g. as might be expected from reconnection, if the dissipation occurs at a sub-photospheric radii. We conclude that dissipation near the thermal photosphere can naturally explain (i) clustering of the peak energy at sub-MeV energies at early times, (ii) steep slopes observed at low energies, and (iii) a flat spectrum above 10keV at late times. Our model thus provides an alternative scenario to the optically thin synchrotron–synchrotron self-Compton model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ultraviolet and optical telescope (UVOT) on Swift provides coverage of gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows in the 170–650nm band, yielding multiwavelength data of considerable diagnostic power in conjunction with the Swift X-ray Telescope. The results from the first eighteen months of operation show a broad range of afterglow behaviour, with considerably more complexity in many bursts than would be expected from the simple fireball model for the explosion. We briefly illustrate the capabilities of UVOT for measuring the evolution of nearby supernovae by reference to the observations of GRB 060218, and discuss the peculiar case of GRB 060614, which apparently resides in a nearby galaxy but which did not show the expected supernova feature in its light curve due to radioactive nickel decay. We discuss how the combination of X-ray and UV/optical spectral data can be used to investigate the environment of GRB host galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 35 years of experimental research, we are rapidly approaching the point at which gravitational waves (GWs) from astrophysical sources may be directly detected by the long-baseline detectors LIGO (USA), GEO 600 (Germany/UK), VIRGO (Italy/France) and TAMA 300 (Japan), which are now in or coming into operation.A promising source of GWs is the coalescence of compact binary systems, events which are now believed to be the origin of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs).In this paper, a brief review of the state of the art in detector development and exploitation will be given, with particular relevance to a search for signals associated with GRBs, and plans for the future will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray astronomy has undergone a transformation in the last few years, with telescopes of unprecedented sensitivity having greatly expanded the source catalogue. Such progress makes the detection of a gamma-ray burst at the highest energies much more likely than previously. This paper describes the facilities currently operating and their chances for detecting gamma-ray bursts, and reviews predictions for VHE gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray bursts. Results to date are summarized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic search of Wolf–Rayet wind signatures, as represented by blue-shifted, high-velocity (|Δv|=1000–5000kms−1) C IV λλ 1548, 1550 absorption doublet has yielded an estimate of 20% for the incidence of these C IV absorbers near the host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). This is consistent with what is observed near classical damped Lyα absorbers that have a comparable neutral hydrogen column density as the GRB host galaxies. A detailed ionization analysis of these absorbers, including the associated low-ionization species, shows that the majority in fact originate in foreground galaxies along the sightline, rather than in the vicinity of the GRB afterglows. Taking into account the enhanced afterglow radiation field, the lack of Wolf–Rayet signatures can be applied to constrain the C/He ratio and the density contrast of the winds in the vicinity of GRB progenitor stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely powerful explosions, originating at cosmological distances, whose outbursts persist for durations ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds or more. In these brief moments, the explosions radiate more energy than the Sun will release in its entire 10Gyr lifetime. Current theories attribute these phenomena to the final collapse of a massive star, or the coalescence of a binary system induced by gravity wave emission.New results from Swift and related programmes offer fresh understanding of the physics of GRBs, and of the local environments and host galaxies of burst progenitors. Bursts found at very high red shifts are new tools for exploring the intergalactic medium, the first stars and the earliest stages of galaxy formation.This Royal Society Discussion Meeting has brought together leading figures in the field, together with young researchers and students, to discuss and review the latest results from NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Burst Observatory and elsewhere, and to examine their impact on current understanding of the observed phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of large-volume detectors of high energy, greater than 1TeV, neutrinos is mainly driven by the search for extragalactic neutrino sources. The existence of such sources is implied by the observations of ultra-high-energy, greater than or equal to 1019eV, cosmic rays, the origin of which is a mystery. In this lecture, I briefly discuss the expected extragalactic neutrino signal and the current state of the experimental efforts. Neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are probably sources of both high-energy protons and neutrinos, is discussed in some detail. The detection of the predicted GRB neutrino signal, which may become possible in the coming few years, will allow one to identify the sources of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and to resolve open questions related to the underlying physics of GRB models. Moreover, detection of GRB neutrinos will allow one to test for neutrino properties (e.g. flavour oscillations and coupling to gravity) with an accuracy many orders of magnitude better than is currently possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While it is well established that long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) are intrinsically rare events, requiring a special evolutionary channel, the nature of the most important channels still has to be established. Here, we review some of the main binary models that have been proposed, specifically tidal spin-up models and binary mergers of various types, and then present a new model involving the recently discovered mechanism of explosive common-envelope ejection. The latter model naturally explains why LGRB-related supernovae have not observed helium and may also explain a constant-density medium around LGRBs, as has been deduced in some cases. LGRB rates as well as their metallicity dependence is also discussed for the various models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Progress in understanding the nature of short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been rapid since the discovery of the first afterglows in mid-2005. The emerging picture appears to be of short GRBs, which originate at moderate redshift (a few tenths) and appear in galaxies of all ages. This discovery has been used to argue for their origin in compact binary mergers. However, this population does not describe all short bursts. Here, I will present results of observations of several short GRBs, which challenge the conclusions drawn from the early observations. The observations show that some short GRBs originate in the very low redshift Universe (below 100Mpc), while some may also lie at redshifts comparable with the long GRBs (i.e. z>2). I will discuss the properties of these bursts and the implications they have for the progenitors of short GRBs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The X-ray flux of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows monitored by the Swift satellite from January 2005 to July 2006 displays one to four phases of flux power-law decay. In chronological order, they are: the GRB tail, the ‘hump’, the standard decay and the post-jet-break decay. More than half of the GRB tails can be identified with the large-angle emission produced during the burst (but arriving later at observer). The remaining, slower GRB tails imply that the gamma-ray mechanism continues to radiate after the burst, as also suggested by the frequent occurrence of X-ray flares during the burst tail. The several GRB tails exhibiting a slow unbroken power-law decay until 100ks must be attributed to the forward shock. In fact, the decay of most GRB tails is also consistent with that of the forward-shock emission from a narrow jet. The X-ray light-curve hump may be due to an increase of the kinetic energy per solid angle of the forward-shock region visible to the observer, caused by either the transfer of energy from ejecta to the forward shock or the emergence of the emission from an outflow seen from a location outside the jet opening. The decay following the X-ray light-curve hump is consistent with the emission from an adiabatic blast wave but, contrary to expectations, the light-curve decay index and spectral slope during this phase are not correlated. The X-ray light curves of two dozens X-ray afterglows that followed for more than a week do not exhibit a jet break, in contrast with the behaviour of pre-Swift optical afterglows, which displayed jet breaks at 0.5–2 days. Nevertheless, the X-ray light curves of several Swift afterglows show a second steepening break at 0.4–3 days that is consistent with the break expected for a jet when its edge becomes visible to the observer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The correlations involving the long-gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) prompt emission energy represent a new key to understand the GRB physics. These correlations have been proved to be the tool that makes long-GRBs a new class of standard candles. Gamma Ray Bursts, being very powerful cosmological sources detected in the hard X-ray band, represent a new tool to investigate the Universe in a redshift range, which is complementary to that covered by other cosmological probes (SNIa and CMB). A review of the Ep–Eiso, Ep–Eγ, Ep–Eiso–tbreak and Liso–Ep–T0.45 correlations is presented. Open issues related to these correlations (e.g. presence of outliers and selection effects) and to their use for cosmographic purposes (e.g. dependence on model assumptions) are discussed. Finally, the relevance of thermal components in GRB spectra is discussed in the light of some of the models recently proposed for the interpretation of the spectral-energy correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Swift X-ray Telescope (XRT) has discovered that flares are quite common in early X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), being observed in roughly 50% of afterglows with prompt follow-up observations. The flares range in fluence from a few per cent to approximately 100% of the fluence of the prompt emission (the GRB). Repetitive flares are seen, with more than four successive flares detected by the XRT in some afterglows. The rise and fall times of the flares are typically considerably smaller than the time since the burst. These characteristics suggest that the flares are related to the prompt emission mechanism, but at lower photon energies. We conclude that the most likely cause of these flares is late-time activity of the GRB central engine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GRB 060218 is a watershed event. Statistically, its detection suggests that there is likely a distinct low-luminosity (LL) population of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) whose event rate is much higher than that of conventional high-luminosity GRBs. This LL population may give significant contribution to the diffuse neutrino background flux at energies higher than 1016eV. The spectral lag of this burst is very long, and roughly follows the luminosity–lag relation of normal GRBs. This, along with the fact that it follows the Ep–Eiso relation as well, suggests that X-ray flashes (XRFs) are natural extension of GRBs in the softer regime and that GRBs and XRFs share the same radiation physics. We discuss how the broadband data pose strong constraints on possible models of the prompt emission of this GRB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio observations of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows are essential for our understanding of the physics of relativistic blast waves, as they enable us to follow the evolution of GRB explosions much longer than the afterglows in any other wave band. We have performed a 3-year monitoring campaign of GRB 030329 with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescopes and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. Our observations, combined with observations at other wavelengths, have allowed us to determine the GRB blast wave physical parameters, such as the total burst energy and the ambient medium density, as well as to investigate the jet nature of the relativistic outflow. Further, by modelling the late-time radio light curve of GRB 030329, we predict that the Low-Frequency Array (30–240MHz) will be able to observe afterglows of similar GRBs, and constrain the physics of the blast wave during its non-relativistic phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The similarity of the absorption spectra of gamma-ray burst (GRB) sources or afterglows with the absorption spectra of quasars (QSOs) suggests that QSOs and GRB sources are very closely related. Since most people believe that the redshifts of QSOs are of cosmological origin, it is natural to assume that GRBs or their afterglows also have cosmological redshifts. For some years a few of us have argued that there is much optical evidence suggesting a very different model for QSOs, in which their redshifts have a non-cosmological origin, and are ejected from low-redshift active galaxies. In this paper I extend these ideas to GRBs. In 2003, Burbidge (Burbidge 2003 Astrophys. J. 183, 112–120) showed that the redshift periodicity in the spectra of QSOs appears in the redshift of GRBs. This in turn means that both the QSOs and the GRB sources are similar objects ejected from comparatively low-redshift active galaxies. It is now clear that many of the GRBs of low redshift do appear in, or very near, active galaxies.A new and powerful result supporting this hypothesis has been produced by Prochter et al. (Prochter et al. 2006 Astrophys. J. Lett. 648, L93–L96). They show that in a survey for strong MgII absorption systems along the sightlines to long-duration GRBs, nearly every sightline shows at least one absorber. If the absorbers are intervening clouds or galaxies, only a small fraction should show absorption of this kind. The number found by Prochter et al. is four times higher than that normally found for the MgII absorption spectra of QSOs. They believe that this result is inconsistent with the intervening hypothesis and would require a statistical fluctuation greater than 99.1% probability.This is what we expect if the absorption is intrinsic to the GRBs and the redshifts are not associated with their distances. In this case, the absorption must be associated with gas ejected from the QSO. This in turn implies that the GRBs actually originate in comparatively low-redshift active galaxies and are ejected in the same way as are the QSOs. This relates these phenomena to a supernova origin for the GRBs. The current situation based on the latest observational data will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association of at least some long gamma-ray bursts with type Ic supernova explosions has been established beyond reasonable doubt. Theoretically, the challenge is to explain the presence of a light hyper-relativistic flow propagating through a massive stellar core without losing those properties. We discuss the role of the jet–star interaction in shaping the properties of the outflow emerging on the surface of the star. We show that the nature of the inner engine is hidden from the observer for most of the evolution, well beyond the time of the jet breakout on the stellar surface. The discussion is based on analytical considerations as well as high resolution numerical simulations. Finally, the observational consequences of the scenario are addressed in light of the present capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]