Schedule Feb 10, 2006
Explanation of GRB and Early Afterglows as Quark-Nova Phenomenon
M. Bagchi, J. Staff, R. Oyed, S. Ray, M. Dey, J. Dey (India)

The recent studies of early afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) with Swift satellite reveals some interesting phenomena which we are modelling with \"Quark-Nova\". This involves strange stars which operate in two steps. In step one, normal nuclear matter gets converted to strange quark matter due to the extreme physical conditions created by a supernova. This strange quark matter then shrinks to form a strange star. The strange star contains charge neutral, beta equilibrated strange quark matter and is surrounded by a thin electron cloud. The energy released during the conversion process is emitted as a GRB. In step two, the remaining normal matter envelope material in the supernova remnant falls freely to form a crust for the strange star. The collision of infalling particles with the electrons of the cloud produces X-ray afterglows. This production of X-ray from collisions causes the observed broken power law in the afterglow light curve.

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