Millisecond Proto-Magnetars & Gamma Ray Bursts

Abstract

In the seconds after core collapse and explosion, a thermal neutrino-driven wind emerges from the cooling, deleptonizing newly-born neutron star. If the neutron star has a large-scale magnetar-strength surface magnetic field and millisecond rotation period, then the wind is driven primarily by magneto-centrifugal slinging, and only secondarily by neutrino interactions. The strong magnetic field forces the wind to corotate with the stellar surface and the neutron star's rotational energy is efficiently extracted. As the neutron star cools, and the wind becomes increasingly magnetically-dominated, the outflow becomes relativistic. Here I review the millisecond magnetar model for long-duration gamma ray bursts and explore some of the basic physics of neutrino-magnetocentrifugal winds. I further speculate on some issues of collimation and geometry in the millisecond magnetar model.