Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: We revisit the Internal-Collision-induced MAgnetic Reconnection and Turbulence model of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in view of the advances made in understanding of both relativistic magnetic turbulence and relativistic turbulent magnetic reconnection. We identify the kink instability as the most natural way of changing the magnetic configuration to release the magnetic free energy through magnetic reconnection, as well as driving turbulence that enables fast turbulent reconnection. We show that this double role of the kink instability is important for explaining the prompt emission of GRBs. Our study confirms the critical role that turbulence plays in boosting reconnection efficiency in GRBs and suggests that the GRB phenomena can be modeled in the magnetohydrodynamics approximation. That is, the modeling is not constrained by reproducing the detailed microphysical properties of relativistic magnetized plasmas.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal
Authors: A. Lazarian, Bing Zhang, Siyao Xu
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G2061207352, Collaborative Research: A Higher Order PDE Toolkit for Computational Mathematics and Astrophysical Turbulence, G433322167, RECENT OBSERVATIONS OF BROAD-BAND PROMPT EMISSION SPECTRA OF GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (GRBS) BY THE FERMI GAMMA-RAY TELESCOPE SUGGEST THAT THEY DO NOT COMPLY, G58316358, G6273510985, Collaborative Research: Using Observations and Models to Study How Dust Grains Between the Stars Align
OpenAlex ID: W2783149642