Gamma-Ray Bursts: Old and New

We discuss some open problems concerning the origin and the emission mechanism of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in light of recent developments. If GRBs originate at extragalactic distances, we are facing four crises: (1) an energy crisis, models have to account for more than 10^{53} ergs of energy emitted in the gamma-ray energy band; (2) a spectral crisis, emission models have to account for the surprising `smoothness' of GRB broad-band spectra, with no indication of the predicte...

We provide a comprehensive review of major developments in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with particular focus on the discoveries made within the last fifteen years when their true nature was uncovered. We describe the observational properties of photons from the radio to multi-GeV bands, both in the prompt emission and the afterglow phases. Mechanisms for the generation of these photons in GRBs are discussed and confronted with observations to shed light on the phys...

In 1997 the first optical afterglow of a cosmic Gamma-Ray Burst was discovered, and substantial progress has been achieved since then. Here we present a short review of some recent developments in this field, with emphasis on observational aspects of the GRB phenomenon.

Since their discovery in 1973, Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have remained for many years one of the most elusive mysteries in High Energy-Astrophysics. The main problem regarding the nature of GRBs has usually been the lack of knowledge of their distance scale. About 300 GRBs are detected annually by BATSE in the full sky, but only a few of them can be localized accurately to less than half a degree. For many years, follow-up observations by other satellites and ground-based teles...

There have been great and rapid progresses in the field of $\gamma$-ray bursts since BeppoSAX and other telescopes discovered their afterglows in 1997. In this talk, the main observational facts of $\gamma$-ray bursts and their afterglows, and the standard fireball shock model are reviewed briefly. And then, various post-standard effects, deviations from the standard model, are presented.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are short and intense bursts of $\sim$100 keV$-$1MeV photons, usually followed by long-lasting decaying afterglow emission in a wide range of electromagnetic wavelengths from radio to X-ray and, sometimes, even to GeV gamma-rays. These emissions are believed to originate from a relativistic jet, which is driven due to the collapse of special massive stars and the mergers of compact binaries (i.e., double neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole)...

It is now more than 40 years since the discovery of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and in the last two decades there has been major progress in the observations of bursts, the afterglows and their host galaxies. This recent progress has been fueled by the ability of gamma-ray telescopes to quickly localise GRBs and the rapid follow-up observations with multi-wavelength instruments in space and on the ground. A total of 674 GRBs have been localised to date using the coded aperture ma...

Gamma-ray bursts GRBs are among the most mysterious astronomical phenomenon ever discovered. Unlike most astronomical discoveries which were explained within weeks or months after their initial discovery, GRBs remain a puzzle for more than thirty years. During the last decade our understanding of GRBs has undergone two major revolutions. First, BATSE discovered that GRBs are distributed isotropically over the sky and thereby demonstrated their cosmological origin. The second ...

Since the launch of the highly successful and ongoing Swift mission, the field of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has undergone a revolution. The arcsecond GRB localizations available within just a few minutes of the GRB alert has signified the continual sampling of the GRB evolution through the prompt to afterglow phases revealing unexpected flaring and plateau phases, the first detection of a kilonova coincident with a short GRB, and the identification of samples of low-luminosity,...

GRBs have remained a puzzle for many high-energy astrophysicists since their discovery in 1967. With the advent of the X-ray satellites BeppoSAX and RossiXTE, it has been possible to carry out deep multi-wavelength observations of the counterparts associated with the long GRBs class just within a few hours of occurence, thanks to the observation of the fading X-ray emission that follows the more energetic gamma-ray photons once the GRB event has ended. The fact that this emis...