Gamma Ray Bursts. Progenitors, accretion in the central engine, jet acceleration mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper reviews the progenitors, accretion processes, and jet acceleration mechanisms in gamma-ray bursts, highlighting differences between long and short GRBs and recent observational evidence supporting theoretical models.

Contribution

It synthesizes current understanding of GRB central engines, emphasizing the role of accretion, rotation, and magnetic fields in jet formation and propagation.

Findings

Long GRBs linked to collapsing massive stars with sustained accretion.

Short GRBs associated with neutron star mergers confirmed by gravitational wave detection.

Jet power initially driven by magnetic Poynting flux, converting to kinetic and radiative energy.

Abstract

The collapsar model was proposed to explain the long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), while the short GRBs are associated with the mergers of compact objects. In the first case, mainly the energetics of the events is consistent with the proposed progenitor models, while the duration, time variability, as well as the afterglow emission may shed some light on the detailed properties of the collapsing massive stars. In the latter case, the recent discovery of the binary neutron star (NS-NS) merger in the gravitational wave observation made by LIGO (GW170817), and the detection of associated electromagnetic counterparts, for the first time gave a direct proof of the NS-NS merger being a progenitor of a short GRB. In general, all GRBs are believed to be powered by accretion through a rotationally supported torus, or by fast rotation of a compact object. For long ones, the rotation of the progenitor star is a key property in order to support accretion over relatively long activity periods, and also to sustain the rotation of the black hole itself. The latter is responsible for ejection of the relativistic jets, which are powered due to the extraction of the BH rotational energy, mitigated by the accretion torus and magnetic fields. The jets must break through the stellar envelope though, which poses a question on the efficiency of this process. Similar mechanisms of powering the jet ejection may act in short GRBs, which in this case may freely propagate through the interstellar medium. The power of the jets launched from the rotating black hole is at first associated mostly with the magnetic Poynting flux, and then at large distances it is transferred to the kinetic and finally radiative energy of the expanding shells.