Gamma-ray burst progenitors are the types of celestial objects that can emit

gamma-ray bursts In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millise ...

(GRBs). GRBs show an extraordinary degree of diversity. They can last anywhere from a fraction of a second to many minutes. Bursts could have a single profile or oscillate wildly up and down in intensity, and their spectra are highly variable unlike other objects in space. The near complete lack of observational constraint led to a profusion of theories, including

evaporating Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when humidi ...

black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...

, magnetic flares on

white dwarfs A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

, accretion of matter onto

neutron stars A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...

antimatter In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioac ...

accretion,

supernovae A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

hypernova A hypernova (sometimes called a collapsar) is a very energetic supernova thought to result from an extreme core-collapse scenario. In this case, a massive star (>30 solar masses) collapses to form a rotating black hole emitting twin energetic je ...

e, and rapid extraction of rotational energy from

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical obj ...

s, among others. There are at least two different types of progenitors (sources) of GRBs: one responsible for the long-duration, soft-spectrum bursts and one (or possibly more) responsible for short-duration, hard-spectrum bursts. The progenitors of long GRBs are believed to be massive, low-

metallicity In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as a ...

stars exploding due to the collapse of their cores. The progenitors of short GRBs are thought to arise from mergers of compact binary systems like neutron stars, which was confirmed by the

GW170817 GW 170817 was a gravitational wave (GW) signal observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017, originating from the shell elliptical galaxy . The signal was produced by the last minutes of a binary pair of neutron stars' inspir ...

observation of a neutron star merger and a

kilonova A kilonova (also called a macronova) is a transient astronomical event that occurs in a compact binary system when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole merge. These mergers are thought to produce gamma-ray bursts and emit bright el ...

Long GRBs: massive stars

Collapsar model

As of 2007, there is almost universal agreement in the astrophysics community that the long-duration bursts are associated with the deaths of massive stars in a specific kind of

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

-like event commonly referred to as a collapsar or

. Very massive stars are able to fuse material in their centers all the way to

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

, at which point a star cannot continue to generate energy by

fusion Fusion, or synthesis, is the process of combining two or more distinct entities into a new whole. Fusion may also refer to: Science and technology Physics *Nuclear fusion, multiple atomic nuclei combining to form one or more different atomic nucl ...

and collapses, in this case, immediately forming a

black hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...

. Matter from the star around the core rains down towards the center and (for rapidly rotating stars) swirls into a high-density

accretion disk An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star. Friction, uneven irradiance, magnetohydrodynamic effects, and other fo ...

. The infall of this material into the black hole drives a pair of jets out along the rotational axis, where the matter density is much lower than in the accretion disk, towards the poles of the star at velocities approaching the speed of light, creating a relativistic shock wave at the front. If the star is not surrounded by a thick, diffuse hydrogen envelope, the jets' material can pummel all the way to the stellar surface. The leading shock actually accelerates as the density of the stellar matter it travels through decreases, and by the time it reaches the surface of the star it may be traveling with a

Lorentz factor The Lorentz factor or Lorentz term is a quantity expressing how much the measurements of time, length, and other physical properties change for an object while that object is moving. The expression appears in several equations in special relativit ...

of 100 or higher (that is, a velocity of 0.9999 times the speed of light). Once it reaches the surface, the shock wave breaks out into space, with much of its energy released in the form of gamma-rays. Three very special conditions are required for a star to evolve all the way to a gamma-ray burst under this theory: the star must be very massive (probably at least 40 Solar masses on the

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

) to form a central black hole in the first place, the star must be rapidly rotating to develop an accretion

torus In geometry, a torus (plural tori, colloquially donut or doughnut) is a surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three-dimensional space about an axis that is coplanar with the circle. If the axis of revolution does not tou ...

capable of launching jets, and the star must have low metallicity in order to strip off its hydrogen envelope so the jets can reach the surface. As a result, gamma-ray bursts are far rarer than ordinary core-collapse supernovae, which ''only'' require that the star be massive enough to fuse all the way to iron.

Evidence for the collapsar view

This consensus is based largely on two lines of evidence. First, long gamma-ray bursts are found without exception in systems with abundant recent star formation, such as in

irregular galaxies An irregular galaxy is a galaxy that does not have a distinct regular shape, unlike a spiral or an elliptical galaxy. Irregular galaxies do not fall into any of the regular classes of the Hubble sequence, and they are often chaotic in appearance, ...

and in the arms of

spiral galaxies Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''type Ib/c, a rare class of supernova caused by core collapse. Type Ib and Ic supernovae lack hydrogen absorption lines, consistent with the theoretical prediction of stars that have lost their hydrogen envelope. The GRBs with the most obvious supernova signatures include GRB 060218 (SN 2006aj), GRB 030329 (SN 2003dh), and GRB 980425 (SN 1998bw), and a handful of more distant GRBs show supernova "bumps" in their afterglow light curves at late times. Possible challenges to this theory emerged recently, with the discovery of two nearby long gamma-ray bursts that lacked the signature of any type of supernova: both GRB060614 and GRB 060505 defied predictions that a supernova would emerge despite intense scrutiny from ground-based telescopes. Both events were, however, associated with actively star-forming stellar populations. One possible explanation is that during the core collapse of a very massive star a black hole can form, which then 'swallows' the entire star before the supernova blast can reach the surface.

Short GRBs: degenerate binary systems

Short gamma-ray bursts appear to be an exception. Until 2007, only a handful of these events have been localized to a definite galactic host. However, those that have been localized appear to show significant differences from the long-burst population. While at least one short burst has been found in the star-forming central region of a galaxy, several others have been associated with the outer regions and even the outer halo of large elliptical galaxies in which star formation has nearly ceased. All the hosts identified so far have also been at low redshift. Furthermore, despite the relatively nearby distances and detailed follow-up study for these events, no supernova has been associated with any short GRB.

Neutron star and neutron star/black hole mergers

While the astrophysical community has yet to settle on a single, universally favored model for the progenitors of short GRBs, the generally preferred model is the merger of two compact objects as a result of gravitational inspiral: two neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole. While thought to be rare in the Universe, a small number of cases of close neutron star - neutron star binaries are known in our Galaxy, and neutron star - black hole binaries are believed to exist as well. According to Einstein's theory of

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

, systems of this nature will slowly lose energy due to

gravitational radiation Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside in 1 ...

and the two degenerate objects will spiral closer and closer together, until in the last few moments,

tidal forces The tidal force is a gravitational effect that stretches a body along the line towards the center of mass of another body due to a gradient (difference in strength) in gravitational field from the other body; it is responsible for diverse phenom ...

rip the neutron star (or stars) apart and an immense amount of energy is liberated before the matter plunges into a single black hole. The whole process is believed to occur extremely quickly and be completely over within a few seconds, accounting for the short nature of these bursts. Unlike long-duration bursts, there is no conventional star to explode and therefore no supernova. This model has been well-supported so far by the distribution of short GRB host galaxies, which have been observed in old galaxies with no star formation (for example, GRB050509B, the first short burst to be localized to a probable host) as well as in galaxies with star formation still occurring (such as GRB050709, the second), as even younger-looking galaxies can have significant populations of old stars. However, the picture is clouded somewhat by the observation of X-ray flaring in short GRBs out to very late times (up to many days), long after the merger should have been completed, and the failure to find nearby hosts of any sort for some short GRBs.

Magnetar giant flares

One final possible model that may describe a small subset of short GRBs are the so-called

magnetar A magnetar is a type of neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field (∼109 to 1011 T, ∼1013 to 1015 G). The magnetic-field decay powers the emission of high-energy electromagnetic radiation, particularly X-rays and gamma rays.War ...

giant flares (also called megaflares or hyperflares). Early high-energy satellites discovered a small population of objects in the Galactic plane that frequently produced repeated bursts of soft gamma-rays and hard X-rays. Because these sources repeat and because the explosions have very soft (generally

thermal A thermal column (or thermal) is a rising mass of buoyant air, a convective current in the atmosphere, that transfers heat energy vertically. Thermals are created by the uneven heating of Earth's surface from solar radiation, and are an example ...

) high-energy spectra, they were quickly realized to be a separate class of object from normal gamma-ray bursts and excluded from subsequent GRB studies. However, on rare occasions these objects, now believed to be extremely magnetized

and sometimes termed

s, are capable of producing extremely luminous outbursts. The most powerful such event observed to date, the giant flare of 27 December 2004, originated from the magnetar

SGR 1806-20 SGR may refer to: * Heart Colchester and Heart Ipswich, radio stations in Suffolk, England both once known as SGR * Sagittarius (constellation) abbreviation * ''Scary Go Round'', a webcomic * Scientists for Global Responsibility, a United Kingdom g ...

and was bright enough to saturate the detectors of every gamma-ray satellite in orbit and significantly disrupted Earth's

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

. While still significantly less luminous than "normal" gamma-ray bursts (short or long), such an event would be detectable to current spacecraft from galaxies as far as the

Virgo cluster The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the lar ...

and, at this distance, would be difficult to distinguish from other types of short gamma-ray burst on the basis of the light curve alone. To date, three gamma-ray bursts have been associated with SGR flares in galaxies beyond the Milky Way: GRB 790305b in the

Large Magellanic Cloud The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or Nubecula Major, is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs (≈160,000 light-years), the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the ...

, GRB 051103 from M81 and GRB 070201 from M31. Frederiks 2008

Diversity in the origin of long GRBs

HETE II and Swift observations reveal that long gamma-ray bursts come with and without supernovae, and with and without pronounced X-ray afterglows. It gives a clue to a diversity in the origin of long GRBs, possibly in- and outside of star-forming regions, with otherwise a common inner engine. The timescale of tens of seconds of long GRBs hereby appears to be intrinsic to their inner engine, for example, associated with a viscous or a dissipative process. The most powerful stellar mass transient sources are the above-mentioned progenitors (collapsars and mergers of compact objects), all producing

rotating black hole A rotating black hole is a black hole that possesses angular momentum. In particular, it rotates about one of its axes of symmetry. All celestial objects – planets, stars (Sun), galaxies, black holes – spin. Types of black holes There a ...

s surrounded by debris in the form of an accretion disk or torus. A rotating black hole carries spin-energy in

angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...

as does a spinning top: :

E_ = \frac I \Omega_H^2

where

I=4M^3(\cos(\lambda/2)/\cos(\lambda/4))^2

and

\Omega_H=(1/2M)\tan(\lambda/2)

denote the moment of inertia and the

angular velocity In physics, angular velocity or rotational velocity ( or ), also known as angular frequency vector,(UP1) is a pseudovector representation of how fast the angular position or orientation of an object changes with time (i.e. how quickly an objec ...

of the black hole in the trigonometric expression

\sin\lambda=a/M

for the specific angular momentum

a

of a Kerr black hole of mass

M

. With no small parameter present, it has been well-recognized that the spin energy of a Kerr black hole can reach a substantial fraction (29%) of its total mass-energy

M

, thus holding promise to power the most remarkable transient sources in the sky. Of particular interest are mechanisms for producing ''non-thermal'' radiation by the gravitational field of rotating black holes, in the process of spin-down against their surroundings in aforementioned scenarios. By Mach's principle,

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...

is dragged along with mass-energy, with the distant stars on cosmological scales or with a black hole in close proximity. Thus, matter tends to spin-up around rotating black holes, for the same reason that

pulsars A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...

spin down by shedding angular momentum in radiation to infinity. A major amount of spin-energy of rapidly spinning black holes can hereby be released in a process of viscous spin-down against an inner disk or torus—into various emission channels. Spin-down of rapidly spinning stellar mass black holes in their lowest energy state takes tens of seconds against an inner disk, representing the remnant debris of the merger of two neutron stars, the break-up of a neutron star around a companion black hole or formed in core-collapse of a massive star. Forced turbulence in the inner disk stimulates the creation of magnetic fields and multipole mass-moments, thereby opening radiation channels in radio, neutrinos and, mostly, in

gravitational waves Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that Wave propagation, propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliv ...

with distinctive chirps shown in the diagram with the creation of astronomical amounts of Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Transparency of matter to gravitational waves offers a new probe to the inner-most workings of supernovae and GRBs. The gravitational-wave observatories

LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Two large ...

and

Virgo Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac *Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy *Virgo Supe ...

are designed to probe stellar mass transients in a frequency range of tens to about fifteen hundred Hz. The above-mentioned gravitational-wave emissions fall well within the LIGO-Virgo bandwidth of sensitivity; for long GRBs powered by "naked inner engines" produced in the binary merger of a neutron star with another neutron star or companion black hole, the above-mentioned magnetic disk winds dissipate into long-duration radio-bursts, that may be observed by the novel

Low Frequency Array The Low-Frequency Array, or LOFAR, is a large radio telescope, with an antenna network located mainly in the Netherlands, and spreading across 7 other European countries as of 2019. Originally designed and built by ASTRON, the Netherlands Institu ...

(LOFAR).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors Gamma-ray bursts Star types