Yet Another Model of Gamma‐Ray Bursts

Abstract

Sari & Piran have demonstrated that the time structure of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) must reflect the time structure of their energy release. A model that satisfies this condition uses the electrodynamic emission of energy by the magnetized rotating ring of dense matter left by neutron star coalescence; GRBs are essentially fast, high-field, differentially rotating pulsars. The energy densities are large enough for the power to appear as an outflowing equilibrium pair plasma, which produces the burst by baryon entrainment and subsequent internal shocks. In this paper the magnetic field and the characteristic timescale for its rearrangement—which determines the observed time structure of the burst—are estimated. There may be quasi-periodic oscillations at the rotational frequencies, which are predicted to range up to 5770 Hz (in a local frame). This model is one of a general class of electrodynamic accretion models that includes the Blandford and Lovelace model of active galactic nuclei and that can also be applied to black hole X-ray sources of stellar mass. The apparent efficiency of nonthermal particle acceleration is predicted to be 10%-50%, but higher values are possible if the underlying accretion flow is super-Eddington.