Centre d'Etudes de Saclay - Orme des Merisiers - Batiment 709
SF2A- PCHE-
91191
Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
Presentation 1 : Poster
Are X-ray flashes a peculiar class of (soft) gamma-ray bursts ?
F. Daigne, C. Barraud and R. Mochkovitch
Heise et al. (2001) have reported the identification of a new class of
sources by Beppo-SAX : the X-ray flashes (XRFs). They have several
common properties with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) (duration comparable to
long GRB durations, variable light curves and non-thermal spectra).
These properties suggest that XRFs are a peculiar class of very soft
GRBs. We have investigated the two main possibilities : either XRFs are
normal GRBs which are apparently soft due to a high redshift; or they
have the same origin than GRBs but are intrinsically softer due to
peculiar physical circumstances. We present here our first results.