Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows In The Multi-Messenger Era: Numerical Models and Closure Relations

Understand

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) associated with gravitational wave events are, and will likely continue to be, viewed at a larger inclination than GRBs without gravitational wave detections.

• As demonstrated by the afterglow of GW170817, this requires an extension of the common GRB afterglow models which typically assume emission from an on-axis top hat jet.
• We present a characterization of the afterglows arising from structured jets, providing a framework covering both successful and choked jets.
• We compute new closure relations for structured jets and compare with the established relations for energy injection and refreshed shock models.