Do Gamma-Ray Bursts Come from the Oort Cloud?

Abstract

We examine the possibility that gamma-ray bursts arise from sources in the Oort comet cloud, basing most of our arguments on accepted models for the formation and spatial distribution of the cloud. We identify three severe problems with such models: (1) There is no known mechanism for producing bursts that can explain the observed burst rate and energetics without violating other observational constraints. (2) The bright source counts cannot be reconciled with standard models for the phase-space distribution of objects in the Oort cloud. (3) The observed isotropy of the available burst data is inconsistent with the expected angular distribution of sources in the Oort cloud. We therefore assert that Oort cloud models of gamma-ray bursts are extremely implausible.