Gamma-ray Burst-Supernova Connection

the origin of many gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) may be explained by the explosive death of a star tens of times more massive than our Sun. the star's core collapses in a supernova event, likely forming a black hole and releasing very fast jets. the GRB light we observe comes from schock fronts within this jets, and for some nearby GRBs we also see accompanying core-collapse supernova (SN). We do not, however, have a sufficiently developed picture of which stars will end their lives as GRB-SN, and how they do this. There is also an urgent need to understand how the GRB jets themselves are launched from the black hole. Very many astrophysical sources possess jets, GRBs being the most relativistic of these.

Some of the strongest gamma-ray burst--supernova associations have been nearby, underluminous bursts, and certainly not to your typical GRB. The expected synchotron emission is, in some of these GRBs, not sufficient to explain the X-ray and UV properties. Additional spectral features are present, whose origins will be investigated in this project both in the context of supernovae in the optical several days to weeks after the burst: if we can find supernova signatures at higher, X-ray, energies it may reveal the supernova shock breakout and act as an early-warning system to help us sutdy the supernova onset and evolution.

This observational project will use past, present and future data from the NASA Swift satellite, a dedicated GRB-finding mission with its UK data centre hosted in Leicester, in combination with a range of other ground- and space-based observatories spanning many wavelengths. Modelling and simulationg the temporal, spectral and sample properties found in these data, you will study the nature and origins of gamma-ray bursts and their associated supernovae.