Jets from compact stars and inner engines of gamma ray bursts

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EnglishSince their accidental discovery in the late 1960s, Gamma-ray bursts remain today the most outstanding puzzle in astrophysics. In a few seconds, they release more energy than the sun will emit in its entire 10 billion years of life making them the most luminous objects in the Universe. These bursts of photons from the highest part of the electromagnetic spectrum were found to originate from the deepest confines of space near the outer reaches of the observable universe (on the order of 3 billion to 10 billion light-years away). Every day these powerful explosions illuminate the sky, coming from apparently random directions. They are the most short-lived energetic events in the universe, flashing and fading in a matter of seconds. They pass too quickly to aim a telescope for follow-up observations and one can only listen to the echo, the so-called afterglow  (the X-ray and optical fading parts of the main burst). A central problem contributing to the Gamma-ray bursts mystery  is the unknown nature of the engine  powering them.The goal of the research project is to investigate theoretically and numerically (using state-of-the-art codes) the fate and the behavior of matter around black holes, quark stars and neutron stars.  We hope to isolate mechanisms which could generate gamma-ray explosions (bursts) and compare them to observations. In doing so, we should be able to suggest which  of these two types of compact stars (black-holes and neutron stars) is the likely candidate for driving the gamma-ray bursts .