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Motivated by detections of hypervelocity stars that may originate from the Galactic center, we revisit the problem of a binary disruption by a passage near a much more massive point mass. The six orders of magnitude mass ratio between the Galactic center black hole (BH) and the binary stars allows us to formulate the problem in the restricted parabolic three-body approximation. In this framework, results can be simply rescaled in terms of binary masses, their initial separation, and the binary-to-black hole mass ratio. Consequently, an advantage over the full three-body calculation is that a much smaller set of simulations is needed to explore the relevant parameter space. Contrary to previous claims, we show that, upon binary disruption, the lighter star does not remain preferentially bound to the black hole. In fact, it is ejected in exactly 50% of the cases. Nonetheless, lighter objects have higher ejection velocities, since the energy distribution is independent of mass. Focusing on the planar case, we provide the probability distributions for disruption of circular binaries and for the ejection energy. We show that even binaries that penetrate deeply into the tidal sphere of the BH are not doomed to disruption, but survive in 20% of the cases. Nor do these deep encounters produce the highest ejection energies, which are instead obtained for binaries arriving to 0.1-0.5 of the tidal radius in a prograde orbit. Interestingly, such deep-reaching binaries separate widely after penetrating the tidal radius, but always approach each other again on their way out from the BH. Finally, our analytic method allows us to account for a finite size of the stars and recast the ejection energy in terms of a minimal possible separation. We find that, for a given minimal separation, the ejection energy is relatively insensitive to the initial binary separation.

We systematically analyze the prompt emission and the early afterglow data of a sample of 31 GRBs detected by Swift before 2005 September and estimate the GRB radiative efficiency. BAT's narrow band inhibits a precise determination of the GRB spectral parameters, and we have developed a method to estimate these parameters with the hardness ratio information. The shallow decay component commonly existing in early X-ray afterglows, if interpreted as continuous energy injection in the external shock, suggests that the GRB efficiencies previously derived from the late-time X-ray data were not reliable. We calculate two radiative efficiencies using the afterglow kinetic energy EK derived at the putative deceleration time (tdec) and at the break time (tb), when the energy injection phase ends, respectively. At tb XRFs appear to be less efficient than normal GRBs. However, when we analyze the data at tdec, XRFs are found to be as efficient as GRBs. Short GRBs have similar radiative efficiencies to long GRBs despite of their different progenitors. Twenty-two bursts in the sample are identified to have the afterglow cooling frequency below the X-ray band. Assuming [?]e = 0.1, we find eg(tb) usually <10% and eg(tdec) varying from a few percent to >90%. Nine GRBs in the sample have the afterglow cooling frequency above the X-ray band for a very long time. This suggests a very small [?]B and/or a very low ambient density n.

Very early observations with the Swift satellite of g-ray burst (GRB) afterglows reveal that the optical component is not detected in a large number of cases. This is in contrast to the bright optical flashes previously discovered in some GRBs (e.g., GRB 990123 and GRB 021211). Comparisons of the X-ray afterglow flux to the optical afterglow flux and prompt g-ray fluence is used to quantify the seemingly deficient optical, and in some cases X-ray, light at these early epochs. This comparison reveals that some of these bursts appear to have higher than normal g-ray efficiencies. We discuss possible mechanisms and their feasibility for explaining the apparent lack of early optical emission. The mechanisms considered include, foreground extinction, circumburst absorption, Lya blanketing and absorption due to high-redshift, low-density environments, rapid temporal decay, and intrinsic weakness of the reverse shock. Of these, foreground extinction, circumburst absorption, and high redshift provide the best explanations for most of the nondetections in our sample. There is tentative evidence of suppression of the strong reverse shock emission. This could be because of a Poynting flux-dominated flow or a pure nonrelativistic hydrodynamic reverse shock.

With the successful launch of the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, a rich trove of early X-ray afterglow data has been collected by its onboard X-Ray Telescope (XRT). Some interesting features are emerging, including a distinct rapidly decaying component preceding the conventional afterglow component in many sources, a shallow decay component before the more "normal" decay component observed in a good fraction of GRBs, and X-ray flares in nearly half of the afterglows. In this paper we systematically analyze the possible physical processes that shape the properties of the early X-ray afterglow light curves and use the data to constrain various models. We suggest that the steep decay component is consistent with the tail emission of the prompt gamma-ray bursts and/or the X-ray flares. This provides strong evidence that the prompt emission and afterglow emission are likely two distinct components, supporting the internal origin of the GRB prompt emission. The shallow decay segment observed in a group of GRBs suggests that very likely the forward shock keeps being refreshed for some time. This might be caused by either a long-lived central engine, or a wide distribution of the shell Lorentz factors, or else possibly the deceleration of a Poynting flux-dominated flow. X-ray flares suggest that the GRB central engine is very likely still active after the prompt gamma-ray emission is over, but with a reduced activity at later times. In some cases, the central engine activity even extends to days after the burst triggers. Analyses of early X-ray afterglow data reveal that GRBs are indeed highly relativistic events and that early afterglow data of many bursts, starting from the beginning of the XRT observations, are consistent with the afterglow emission from an ISM environment.

Swift discovered the high-redshift GRB 050319 with the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) and began observing with its narrow-field instruments only 225 s after the burst onset. The afterglow X-ray emission was monitored by the XRT up to 28 days after the burst. The light curve shows a decay with three different phases, each characterized by a distinct slope: an initial steep decay with a power-law index of ~5.5, a second phase characterized by a flat decay slope of ~0.54, and a third phase with a decay slope of ~1.14. During the first phase the spectral energy distribution is softer than in the following two phases, and the photon index is consistent with the GRB prompt spectrum. The extrapolation of the BAT light curve to the XRT band suggests that the initial fast-decaying phase of the XRT afterglow might be the low-energy tail of the prompt emission. The second break in the afterglow light curve occurs about 27,000 s after the burst. The spectral energy distribution before and after the second break does not change, and it can be tentatively interpreted as a jet break or the end of a delayed or continuous energy injection phase.

Short-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs; [?]2 s) have remained a mystery due to the lack of afterglow detection until recently. The models to interpret short GRBs invoke distinct progenitor scenarios. Here we present a generic analysis of short GRB afterglows and calculate the optical light curves of short GRBs within the framework of different progenitor models. We show that all these optical afterglows are bright enough to be detected by the Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope (UVOT) on board the Swift observatory and that different models could be distinguished with a well-monitored light curve. We also model the afterglow data of the recently discovered short burst GRB 040924. We find that the limited data are consistent with a low medium density environment, which is consistent with the preconcept of the compact star merger progenitor model, although the models with a collapsar progenitor are not ruled out.

We quantize the gravitational wave which arises from quantum fluctuations in the inflationary universe and compute its time evolution using a simple model of the cosmological evolution. As a result, we obtain the power spectrum of the background gravitational wave and calculate the behavior of the squeezed parameters.