B. E. Stern
Time Variability of Gamma-Ray Bursts: A Search for a Unifying Law
The temporal properties of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are reviewed.
The averaged peak-aligned time profile of GRBs is shown to
follow a stretched exponential extending over three orders of magnitude
in time. The average power density spectrum is well represented
by a power-law with the slope $-5/3$ (as in the Kolmogorov spectrum)
extending over two decades in Fourier frequency.
A mathematical toy pulse avalanche model is shown to reproduce
both the averaged time profile and the averaged power density
spectrum. Existing models of GRBs are confronted with the time
variability data.
Back to
Gamma-Ray Burst Workshop Proceedings