Structured jets in gamma ray bursts

The gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe. Observationally, they are short and very intense pulses of photons in the keV-MeV range. The paradigm is that the gamma rays are emitted at cosmological distances when an ultra-relativistic energy flow is converted to radiation in an optically thin region. Evidence suggests that many of the GRBs originate from the relativistically moving matter beamed in the form of a conical jet. Probably, these jets are not uniform, but rather structured, the energy being distributed with internal angle as some function dependent on the angle between the jet symmetry axis and an arbitrary direction within the jet. Here we investigate the case in which the bulk Lorentz factor of the ejecta varies as a power-law with respect to the axis of the jet. Using a simple kinematical model, under certain assumptions, we can constraint the values of the power-law index. Also, we briefly discuss some important consequences of the jetted GRBs concept in the context of the general understanding of the phenomenon. (authors)