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The Ptolemaic gamma-ray burst universe

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Abstract

The BATSE experiment on GRO has demonstrated the isotropic arrival directions and flad logN vs logS of cosmic gamma-ray bursts. These data are best explained if the burst sources are distributed throughout an extended spherical galactic halo, as previously suggested by Jennings. The halo's radius is at least 40 kpc, and probably is more than 100 kpc. I consider possible origins of this halo, including primordial formation and neutron stars recoiling from their birthplaces in the galactic disc A simple geometrical model leads to a predicted relation between the dipole and quadrupole anisotropy. I suggest that neutron stars born with low recoil become millisecond publsars, while those born with high recoil become the sources of gamma-ray bursts; these populations are nearly disjoint. Quiescent counterparts of gamma-ray bursts are predicted to be undetectably faint.

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  1. Department of Physics and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    J. I. Katz

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  1. J. I. Katz
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Katz, J.I. The Ptolemaic gamma-ray burst universe. Astrophys Space Sci 197, 163–168 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00645080

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00645080

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