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arXiv · astro-ph/0410377

Hydrodynamics of Internal Shocks in Relativistic Outflows

Abstract

We study the hydrodynamical effects of two colliding shells, adopted to model internal shocks in various relativistic outflows such as gamma-ray bursts and blazars. We find that the density profiles are significantly affected by the propagation of rarefaction waves. A split-feature appears at the contact discontinuity of the two shells. The shell spreading with a few ten percent of the speed of light is also shown to be a notable aspect. The conversion efficiency of the bulk kinetic energy to internal one shows deviations from the widely-used inelastic two-point-mass-collision model. Observational implications are also shortly discussed.

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M. Kino, A. Mizuta, A. Celotti, S. Yamada. 2004-10-15. Hydrodynamics of Internal Shocks in Relativistic Outflows. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1878455

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