Gamma-ray bursts, witnessing the birth of stellar mass black holes

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts are associated with catastrophic cosmic events. They appear when a new black hole, created after the explosion of a massive star or the merger of two compact stars, quickly accretes the matter around it and ejects a transient relativistic jet in our direction. This review discusses the various types of gamma-ray bursts, their progenitors, their beaming and their rate in the local universe. We emphasize the broad astrophysical interest of GRB studies, and the crucial role of high-energy satellites as exclusive suppliers of GRB alerts and initial locations. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.