Supervisor : Prof Dick Willingale (rw@star.le.ac.uk)

Details of Project

We know that Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB) are the most powerful sources of energy in the Universe. Even if we assume that the radiation is not isotropic but beamed they result from the release of >10^⁵¹ ergs of energy is just a few seconds. They are seen in two varieties, short (SGRB) and long (LGRB), with an approximate division at 2 seconds in terms of the duration of the prompt (gamma-ray) emission.

Source : NASA

LGRBs are thought to arise from the collapse of a single massive star while SGRBs may arise from the merger of two compact objects. Both almost certainly give rise to an accreting black hole which powers relativistic jets and we see a GRB if the jet points at us. What we see is complicated; an apparently chaotic mix of pulses of varying duration, shape and spectrum often followed by a long-lasting afterglow in X-ray and visible wavelengths. Despite an ever growing body of multiwavelength data the physical origins and the detailed properties of the GRB and its jet are poorly understood.
The University of Leicester is the leading GRB research group in the UK with a major role in the Swift mission and an extensive programme of observations with other telescopes and satellites.

The main aim of the PhD is to analyse multiwavelength data from the prompt and afterglow emission from a large sample of GRBs including observations from the Swift and Fermi missions. The combination of prompt and later emission provides vital clues and constraints on the proposed progenitor models and the physics of the relativistic jet. The PhD will involve both the analysis of observational data and its theoretical interpretation.

Sources of Data

Swift, Fermi and ground-based telescopes

Background Reading

Mezsaros, P., 2002, Annual Reviews of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 40, 137

Zhang, B., 2007, Chinese Journal of Astronomy & Astrophysics, 7, 1 

Leicester GRB Research 

The Swift mission is described at the UK Swift Data Centre