Presentation description

Occurring in distant galaxies, gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely powerful yet highly variable explosions. Thus arises difficulty in the verification of GRB models and the determination of the jet energy relying on data from the burst alone. However, GRB afterglows, emerging from the synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) radiation produced by electrons accelerated by a relativistic shock of the jet, vary smoothly and can therefore provide use in calculating physical constraints on the GRB. Since electrons are cooled by both synchrotron and SSC processes the resultant synchrotron SSC spectrum is dependent upon the distribution of the cooled electrons of which is dependent on the Compton Y parameter of which is dependent on the synchrotron SSC spectrum. This gives rise to an iterative numerical algorithm that arrives at a converged synchrotron SSC spectrum from an initial synchrotron (no SSC) spectrum. Treating the SSC scattering as an approximated quantum field theory process (à la a step function approximation of the full Klein-Nishina cross section) we recover shallower light curves than when treating classically (à la the full Thomson cross section) which are comparable to previous analytical work.