Halo beaming models for gamma ray bursts

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Abstract
Neutron stars born with rotation periods P∼1–3 ms plausibly acquire dipole magnetic fields and recoil velocities Vr much larger than those of ordinary pulsars. These stars remain hot and magnetically active long after they have spun down below the pulsar death line. Here we present Monte Carlo simulations of the angular distribution of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) which, we conjecture, are triggered by the decay of the stellar magnetic field. Simple physical arguments indicate that the GRBs are preferentially beamed parallel or anti‐parallel to V↘r. This implies that only a small fraction of bursts are detectable from stars within a distance ∼30 kpc, but that the probability of detection increases with distance. The resulting flux‐density relation of GRBs closely matches the combined PVO‐BATSE data for Vr=1000 km s−1, angular radius φ=20° of the beaming cone, and constant burst rate and luminosity. The net angular distribution of GRBs lies within one standard deviation of the lastest available BATSE results. A distinctive prediction of this model is that the brightest bursts are concentrated toward the Galactic center AND anti‐center, so that 〈cos2θ〉≳1/3 for this subset of bursts while 〈cosθ〉 remains small. Our results are applicable to any <named-content xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"...

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