Gamma-ray Bursts Produced by Mirror Stars

Abstract

I argue that cosmic Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB) may be produced by collapses or mergers of stars made of `mirror' matter. The mirror neutrinos (which are sterile for our matter) produced at these events can oscillate into ordinary neutrinos. The annihilations or decays of the latter create an electron-positron plasma and subsequent relativistic fireball with a very low baryon load needed for GRBs. The concept of mirror matter is able to explain several key problems of modern astrophysics: neutrino anomalies, the missing mass, MACHO microlensing events and GRBs. Thus this concept becomes very appealing and should be considered quite seriously and attentively.