Abstract
The spectra of γ-ray bursts, which are generally thought to result from a transient phenomenon on a neutron star, extend from the optical up to γ-ray energies. It has recently been suggested1 that the whole spectrum may be due to irradiation of a reprocessing and reflecting boundary near a source of power-law γ-rays with a low-energy cutoff E0 ≈ 300-500 keV. In this picture, the emission at intermediate energy (10 keV≲E≲300-500 keV) results from the reflection of incipient high-energy γ-rays by the surface layers of the underlying neutron star and/or its accretion disk. Some bursts display high-energy (∼400-keV) features, which may be gravitationally redshifted photons produced from the annihilation of electron-positron pairs. This explanation, however, has been open to criticism. I show that an alternative explanation for the high-energy features may be the superposition of the incipient and reflected spectral components near E0.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 658-660 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Nature |
Volume | 336 |
Issue number | 6200 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1988 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General