GRB Photospheres

Talk: AlbaNova Colloquium (2017)

Physics of gamma-ray bursts - AlbaNova Colloquium (2017)

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Review: Appearances of the Jet Photosphere in GRB Spectra

There are several strong arguments for considering photospheric emission in GRBs. Here, we describe the two main appearances of the photospheric emission that are currently discussed. In the multi-component models the photosphere only contributes to a part of the spectrum, while the main part is due to optically-thin synchrotron emission. In the photospheric emission models the whole emission spectrum is from the photosphere: The emission spectrum has been altered due to subphotospheric dissipation and/or off-axis emission. In many cases, though, it is dicult to distinguish between these models on a purely statistical ground. Therefore, more detailed predictions from different physical scenarios should be tested on the observations.

Paper: Photospheres in GRBs 2016