Gamma-Ray Bursts at high and very high energies

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in understanding gamma-ray burst jet physics above 100 MeV, highlighting Fermi observations, their physical implications, and future prospects for very high energy detection.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of recent Fermi observations of GRBs above 100 MeV and discusses their implications for GRB jet models and future observations.

Findings

Fermi observations have revealed high-energy components in GRB emissions.

These observations suggest complex jet physics and particle acceleration mechanisms.

Future prospects include detecting GRBs at even higher energies.

Abstract

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are extra-galactic and extremely energetic transient emissions of gamma rays, which are thought to be associated with the death of massive stars or the merger of compact objects in binary systems. Their huge luminosities involve the presence a newborn stellar-mass black hole emitting a relativistic collimated outflow, which accelerates particles and produces non-thermal emissions from the radio domain to the highest energies. In this article, I review recent progresses in the understanding of GRB jet physics above 100 MeV, based on Fermi observations of bright GRBs. I discuss the physical implications of these observations and their impact on GRB modeling, and I present some prospects for GRB observation at very high energies in the near future.