Direct and bulk-scattered forward-shock emissions: sources of X-ray afterglow diversity

Abstract

I describe the modifications to the standard forward-shock model required to account for the X-ray light-curve features discovered by Swift in the early afterglow emission and propose that a delayed, pair-enriched, and highly relativistic outflow, which bulk-scatters the forward-shock synchrotron emission, yields sometimes a brighter X-ray emission, producing short-lived X-ray flares, X-ray light-curve plateaus ending with chromatic breaks, and fast post-plateau X-ray decays.