Publication Date:
2014-09-10
Description:
Gamma ray burst observations are reviewed with mention of new gamma-ray and optical transient measurements and with discussions of the controversial, contradictory and unresolved issues that have recently emerged: burst spectra appear to fluctuate in time as rapidly as they are measured, implying that any one spectrum may be incorrect; energy spectra can be obligingly fitted to practically any desired shape, implying, in effect, that no objective spectral resolution exists at all; burst fluxes and temporal quantities, including the total event energy, are characterized very differently with differing instruments, implying that even elementary knowledge of their properties is instrumentally subjective; finally, the log N-log S determinations are deficient in the weak bursts, while there is no detection of a source direction anisotropy, implying that Ptolemy was right or that burst source distance estimates are basically guesswork. These issues may remain unsolved until vastly improved instruments are flown.
Keywords:
SPACE RADIATION
Type:
Goddard Space Flight Center Contrib. to the Univ. of Calif., Santa Cruz Summer Workshop on High Energy Transients; 10 p
Format:
text
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