Are GRB 090423 and Similar bursts due to Superconducting Cosmic strings?

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether superconducting cosmic strings could explain high-redshift gamma-ray bursts like GRB 090423, but finds that their ultra-relativistic outflows are too narrow to match observed afterglow data.

Contribution

The study evaluates the viability of superconducting cosmic strings as sources of high-redshift gamma-ray bursts and identifies limitations based on afterglow observations.

Findings

Superconducting cosmic strings can produce energetic gamma-ray bursts at high redshifts.

Their ultra-relativistic outflows are too narrow to fit afterglow data of GRB 090423.

Superconducting cosmic strings are unlikely the primary source of these high-redshift GRBs.

Abstract

Superconducting cosmic strings may be able to power energetic gamma-ray bursts, in particular at high-redshifts ($z>6$). The ultra-relativistic outflows driven by the superconducting cosmic strings, however, seem too narrow to be consistent with the afterglow data of GRB 090423 and GRB 080913.