Title:
High-Energy Emission and Recent Afterglow Studies of Gamma-Ray Bursts
Abstract:
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) show a puzzling behavior at photon energies
>100 MeV compared to their more “typical” emission at MeV energies.
In this talk, I will show that these >100 MeV photons are produced
when the GRB jet interacts with the medium that surrounds it: the
external forward shock model. I arrive at this conclusion not only by
studying the >100 MeV emission, but also by studying the afterglow
observations. I corroborate this model by studying the electron
acceleration in the external forward shock model and find that
electrons can radiate at the maximum observed energy of ∼10 GeV. I
will also provide an extensive analysis of the most recent afterglow
observations of GRB 090902B within the same framework of an external
forward shock origin.