Wolf–Rayet stars as gamma-ray burst progenitors

The collapsar scenario for long gamma-ray bursts requires rapidly rotating Wolf–Rayet stars as progenitor stars. We highlight two possible ways out of the dilemma that the strong winds of Wolf–Rayet lead to a fast spin-down. One way is to restrict the duration of the Wolf–Rayet phase to a short time...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New astronomy reviews 2010-03, Vol.54 (3), p.206-210
Main Authors: Langer, N., van Marle, A.-J., Yoon, S.-C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Gamma-ray bursts
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Summary:The collapsar scenario for long gamma-ray bursts requires rapidly rotating Wolf–Rayet stars as progenitor stars. We highlight two possible ways out of the dilemma that the strong winds of Wolf–Rayet lead to a fast spin-down. One way is to restrict the duration of the Wolf–Rayet phase to a short time span at the end of the star’s evolution. We show that this appears to apply to GRB 021004. The other way is to choose a sub-solar metallicity, thus limiting the Wolf–Rayet wind efficiency. We discuss corresponding stellar evolution models and show that a metallicity limit of about 1/10th solar, as it is required by the models, may be consistent with the empirical gamma-ray burst rate.
ISSN:1387-6473
1872-9630
DOI:10.1016/j.newar.2010.09.012