Cloaked Gamma Ray Bursts

Abstract

It is suggested that many \(\gamma\)-ray bursts (GRBs) are cloaked by an ultra-relativistic baryonic shell that has high optical depth when the photons are manufactured. Such a shell would not fully block photons reflected or emitted from its inner surface, because the radial velocity of the photons can be less than that of the shell. This avoids the standard problem associated with GRBs that the thermal component should be produced where the flow is still obscured by high optical depth. The radiation that escapes high optical depth obeys the Amati relation. Observational implications may include a) anomalously high ratios of afterglow to prompt emission, such as may have been the case in the recently discovered PTF 11agg, and b) ultrahigh-energy neutrino pulses that are non-coincident with detectable GRB. It is suggested that GRB 090510, a short, very hard GRB with very little afterglow, was an {\it exposed} GRB, in contrast to those cloaked by baryonic shells. \end{abstract}