The prompt emission of long gamma-ray bursts: a mystery being slowly unravelled

by Damien Begue (KTH)

Tuesday 22 Sept 2015, 13:15 → 15:00 Europe/Stockholm

FB53

Despite 40 years of intensive observations, the mechanisms at work in long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most energetic explosions in the universe, are still poorly understood and constrained. Indirect evidences, such as high energy emission (E ~ GeV) point toward a highly relativistic nature of GRBs jets. However, the acceleration mechanism(s) [thermal vs magnetic] and the jets' content [baryonic, leptonic and magnetic] are still strongly debated. The same goes for the prompt emission mechanism(s); mainly due to the large diversity of GRBs observations. This talk will explain the current understanding of the physics behind the GRB phenomenon.