Shiho Kobayashi

Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University

torek, 18. 3. 2008, ob 14h v F6

A few times a day our sky flashes with a powerful pulse of gamma-rays. A single gamma-ray burst (GRB) releases in seconds the same amount of energy Sun will emit over its 10 billion-year lifetime. Recent observations revolutionized our understanding of GRBs, and it suggests that GRBs involve the formation of a black hole via a catastrophic stellar collapse event or possibly a neutron star merger. Paying attention to interesting relativistic effects, I briefly explain the standard gamma-ray burst model, and I summarize several open issues which are not explained in the standard framework. Magnetized outflow model is recently attracting attentions of researchers, because it could circumvent the problems in the standard model. I will discuss how polarization measurements can give constraints to the magnetized model.