12:00, Observatory Lab A.U.Th. 

Abstract:

The GRB story will be outlined briefly from the perspective of the
presenter, outlining the revolution brought by the detection of GRB
afterglows and the  conundrum of their light curves born by the more
synoptic Swift observations. It will be argued that despite the
apparent disassociation between the prompt and afterglow stages of
GRB, there are indications, in the form of correlations between
their properties, of an underlying physics that imply a unity of
these  two stages. The fundamentals of a model developed by the
presenter and A. Mastichiadis will be reviewed along wtih some
simple calculations based on this model that appear to be able to
resolve the afterglow light curve conundrum. Finally, a well defined
corollary of this model and its (rather striking) agreement with
observations will be presented and discussed.