580 research outputs found
Dynamical Evolution of an Ultra-relativistic Fireball Colliding with a Freely Expanding Gas
We investigate the hydrodynamical evolution of an ultra-relativistic fireball
colliding with a freely expanding gas. The hydrodynamical interaction of the
fireball and the gas results in the formation of a geometrically thin shell. We
study the dynamical evolution of the shell by an analytical way and perform a
numerical simulation equipped with an adaptive mesh refinement to investigate
the internal structure of the shell. The shocked gas can give rise to bright
emission in the X-ray and gamma-ray energy range. We propose that the breakout
emission from the forward shock and the photospheric emission from the
reverse-shocked fireball contribute to early gamma-ray emission from gamma-ray
bursts.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
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