Gamma Ray Bursts Cook Book I: Formulation

Understand

Since the suggestion of relativistic shocks as the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in early 90's, the mathematical formulation of this process has stayed at phenomenological level.

• One of the reasons for the slow development of theoretical works in this domain has been the simple power-law behaviour of the afterglows hours or days after the prompt gamma-ray emission.
• Nowadays with the launch of the Swift satellite, gamma-ray bursts can be observed in multi-wavelength from a few tens of seconds after trigger onward.
• These observations have leaded to the discovery of features unexplainable by the simple formulation of the shocks and emission processes used up to now.