The cannonball model of long GRBs - overview

Abstract

During the past ten years, the predictions of the cannonball (CB) model of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) were repeatedly confronted with the mounting data from space- and ground-based observations of GRBs and their afterglows (AGs). The two underlying radiation mechanisms of the model, inverse Compton scattering (ICS) and synchrotron radiation (SR), provided an accurate description of the prompt and afterglow emission in all of the many well-sampled GRBs that were studied. Simple as they are, these two mechanisms and the burst environment were shown to generate the observed rich structure of the GRB light-curves at all observed frequencies and times.