Scientific Seminars

Gamma-ray bursts: clues from the spectra and variability of the prompt phase

Zeljka Bosnjak
SISSA/ISAS Trieste

2005-12-16    11:00    Merate -

I will discuss some present hot topics of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), related to their association with supernovae (SNe), the recently found spectral correlations for long GRBs and the properties of hard GRB spectra. The results of the spectral and temporal analysis of GRB/SN candidates are going to be presented and discussed in comparison to the large BATSE GRBs population. This analysis points out to the possible presence of a significant number of underluminous, GRB 980425-like events. The BATSE bursts also allow to probe the recently found energetics/spectral correlations for GRBs. I will present and discuss the recent results which indicate that the whole BATSE population of long GRBs is cosistent with such spectral correlations. Finally I will consider a newly found hard/thermal burst which could be interpreted in the framework of the standard model as representative of the transition between the photospheric to the internal shock dominated phase.