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Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions

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A special issue of Universe (ISSN 2218-1997). This special issue belongs to the section "Space Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 4509

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Yongfeng Huang

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Guest Editor

School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: high-energy astrophysics; gamma-ray bursts; neutron stars; fast radio bursts; strange quark stars

Prof. Dr. He Gao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Interests: gamma-ray bursts; fast radio bursts; gravitational wave electromagnetic counterparts

Prof. Dr. Liang Li

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Guest Editor

Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, Ningbo University, Ningbo 315211, China
Interests: gamma-ray bursts; fast radio bursts; gravitational waves; deep learning

Dr. Jinjun Geng

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210023, China
Interests: fast radio bursts; gamma-ray bursts; black holes; neutron stars

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the most violent explosive phenomena in the universe, releasing enormous amounts of energy in gamma-rays in a very short time period. Since their first detection by the Vela satellites in 1967, GRBs have long been a central topic of research in high-energy astrophysics. The discovery of GRB afterglows in 1997 and subsequent multiwavelength/multi-messenger observations have led to rapid progress in the field. Although a basic picture has been established for both long and short GRBs, many issues still remain unsolved, including the classification of GRBs, the connection with star formation rate, the composition and launching mechanism of ultra-relativistic outflows, the event rates at all redshift ranges, the usage of GRBs in cosmology, multiwavelength properties, central engines and their prolonged activities, the connection between GRBs and other transients such as supernovae and gravitational wave bursts and fast radio bursts, and radiation mechanisms in the prompt burst phase and at the afterglow stage.

In this Special Issue entitled “Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions”, we will collect high-quality contributions from all over the world involving various unsolved aspects of GRBs, including observational and theoretical progress, as well as the development of instrumentation techniques. Both research papers and review articles are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Yongfeng Huang
Prof. Dr. He Gao
Prof. Dr. Liang Li
Dr. Jinjun Geng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Universe is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts
afterglow of gamma-ray bursts
classification of gamma-ray bursts
beaming effects in gamma-ray bursts
central engines of gamma-ray bursts and their prolonged activities
radiation mechanisms of gamma-ray bursts
host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts
cosmological application of gamma-ray bursts
multiwavelength and multi-messenger aspects of gamma-ray bursts
instrumentation for gamma-ray bursts

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 5346 KB

Open AccessArticle

Constraining the Quantum Gravity Energy Scale via Gamma-Ray Burst Spectral Lag Data

by Jia-Wei Jiang, Liang Li and Yu Wang

Universe 2026, 12(4), 97; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe12040097 - 30 Mar 2026

Viewed by 409

Abstract

Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) can alter the group velocity of photons by modifying their dispersion relation, manifesting as differences in the arrival times of photons with different energies. This effect can accumulate over long propagation distances, making gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) a key tool for probing Lorentz invariance violation. By analyzing spectral lag data from 360 measurements across 90 GRBs using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling, and under the assumption that all GRBs share a common intrinsic time delay function, we report a maximum a posteriori value of the energy scale of quantum gravity at linear order

E_{Q G} = 8.96 \times 10^{14}

GeV, though the data are also compatible with Lorentz invariance (

E_{QG} = \infty

) to within

2.8 σ

. Furthermore, we are

95 %

confident that

E_{Q G} \geq 6.67 \times 10^{14}

GeV. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions)

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24 pages, 1646 KB

Open AccessArticle

Statistical Properties of Prompt Emission and X-Ray Afterglow Plateau Emission of Gamma-Ray Bursts with Jet Features

by Da-Ling Ma, Si-Yuan Zhu, Wan-Peng Sun and Fu-Wen Zhang

Universe 2025, 11(12), 397; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11120397 - 3 Dec 2025

Viewed by 440

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are widely recognized to exhibit jet-like emission structures, though previous studies often assumed isotropic emission due to observational constraints. This assumption limited our understanding of the intrinsic properties of GRBs. Here, we analyze 40 GRBs with observed X-ray plateaus and jet features, all with measured redshifts. By applying jet corrections to prompt and plateau-phase quantities, we probe their intrinsic behavior. We find that the jet-corrected prompt emission energy (

E_{j e t}

) depends less strongly on the jet-corrected X-ray luminosity at the end of the plateau (

L_{X, j e t}

). An anti-correlation is also observed between the jet opening angle (

θ_{j e t}

) and the rest frame peak energy (

E_{p, z}

E_{p, z} \propto θ_{j e t}^{- 0.44 \pm 0.13}

for ISM and

E_{p, z} \propto θ_{j e t}^{- 0.78 \pm 0.13}

for wind environments, indicating that more collimated jets yield higher peak energies. After jet correction, the

L_{X}

T_{a, z}

correlation and the three-parameter

L_{X}

T_{a, z}

E_{γ, i s o}

L_{X}

T_{a, z}

L_{p}

and

L_{X}

T_{a, z}

E_{p, z}

relations are generally weakened. Among these, the first three remain relatively stable, suggesting they reflect intrinsic GRB physics, whereas the

L_{X}

T_{a, z}

E_{p, z}

relation weakens significantly, implying it may be an artifact of the isotropic assumption. We also identify a new three-parameter correlation:

θ_{j e t} (I S M) \propto E_{j e t} {(I S M)}^{0.36 \pm 0.06} E_{p, z}^{- 0.62 \pm 0.09}

θ_{j e t} (W i n d) \propto E_{j e t}

{(W i n d)}^{0.29 \pm 0.09}

E_{p, z}^{- 0.61 \pm 0.09}

. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions)

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9 pages, 612 KB

Open AccessArticle

A Test of Amati Relation Using HII Galaxy Distances

by Rikiya Okazaki and Shantanu Desai

Universe 2025, 11(11), 371; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11110371 - 9 Nov 2025

Viewed by 513

Abstract

We use model-independent luminosity distances of 186 HII galaxy observations to address the circularity problem in the Amati relation for Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs). For this purpose, we used Artificial Neural Network-based interpolation to reconstruct the luminosity distance corresponding to the GRB redshift. We [...] Read more.

z = 2.6

. Our best-fit Amati relation parameters are consistent for the same datasets to within

1 σ

. The intrinsic scatters which we obtain for the two datasets of about 28% and 35% are comparatively larger. This implies that the Amati relation using HII galaxies as distance anchors cannot be used as a probe of precision cosmology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions)

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13 pages, 793 KB

Open AccessCommunication

Gamma-Ray Bursts Calibrated by Using Artificial Neural Networks from the Pantheon+ Sample

by Zhen Huang, Xin Luo, Bin Zhang, Jianchao Feng, Puxun Wu, Yu Liu and Nan Liang

Universe 2025, 11(8), 241; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11080241 - 23 Jul 2025

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 816

Abstract

In this paper, we calibrate the luminosity relation of gamma−ray bursts (GRBs) by employing artificial neural networks (ANNs) to analyze the Pantheon+ sample of type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in a manner independent of cosmological assumptions. The A219 GRB dataset is used to [...] Read more.

E_{p}

E_{iso}

) at low redshift with the ANN framework, facilitating the construction of the Hubble diagram at higher redshifts. Cosmological models are constrained with GRBs at high redshift and the latest observational Hubble data (OHD) via the Markov chain Monte Carlo numerical approach. For the Chevallier−Polarski−Linder (CPL) model within a flat universe, we obtain

Ω_{m} = {0.321}_{- 0.069}^{+ 0.078}

h = {0.654}_{- 0.071}^{+ 0.053}

w_{0} = {- 1.02}_{- 0.50}^{+ 0.67}

, and

w_{a} = {- 0.98}_{- 0.58}^{+ 0.58}

at the 1 −

σ

confidence level, which indicates a preference for dark energy with potential redshift evolution (

w_{a} \neq 0

). These findings using ANNs align closely with those derived from GRBs calibrated using Gaussian processes (GPs). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions)

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9 pages, 453 KB

Open AccessArticle

Constraints on Lorentz Invariance Violation from Gamma-Ray Burst Rest-Frame Spectral Lags Using Profile Likelihood

by Vyaas Ramakrishnan and Shantanu Desai

Universe 2025, 11(6), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11060183 - 6 Jun 2025

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1597

Abstract

We reanalyze the spectral lag data for 56 Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the cosmological rest frame to search for Lorentz Invariance Violation (LIV) using frequentist inference. For this purpose, we use the technique of profile likelihood to deal with the nuisance parameters, corresponding [...] Read more.

E_{Q G}

). With this method, we do not obtain a global minimum for

χ^{2}

as a function of

E_{Q G}

up to the Planck scale. Thus, we can obtain one-sided lower limits on

E_{Q G}

in a seamless manner. Therefore, the 95% c.l. lower limits which we thus obtain on

E_{Q G}

are then given by

E_{Q G} \geq 2.07 \times 10^{14}

GeV and

E_{Q G} \geq 3.71 \times 10^{5}

GeV, for linear and quadratic LIV, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Gamma-Ray Bursts: Unveiling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Most Powerful Explosions)

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