Fireballs and Gamma-Ray Bursts

Abstract

The sudden release of copious $\g$-ray photons into a compact region creates an opaque photon--lepton fireball due to the prolific production of electron--positron pairs. The photons that we observe in the bursts emerge only at the end of the fireball phase after it expanded sufficiently to become optically thin or after it converted its energy to the kinetic energy of relativistic baryons which convert it, in turn, to electromagnetic pulse via the interaction with interstellar matter. It is essential, therefore, to analyze the evolution of a fireball in order to comprehend the observed features of $γ$-ray bursts. We discuss various aspects of fireball hydrodynamics and the resulting emitted spectra.