Vacuum discharge as a possible source of gamma-ray bursts

We propose that spontaneous particle-antiparticle pair creations from the discharged vacuum caused by the strong interactions in dense matter are major sources of γ-ray bursts. Two neutron star collisions or black hole-neutron star mergers at cosmological distance could produce a compact object with its density exceeding the critical density for pair creations. The emitted anti-particles annihilate with corresponding particles at the ambient medium. This releases a large amount of energy. We discuss the spontaneous pp-bar pair creations within two neutron star collision and estimate the exploded energy from pp-bar annihilation processes. The total energy could be around 1051 - 10 53 erg depending on the impact parameter of colliding neutron stars. This value fits well into the range of the initial energy of the most energetic γ-ray bursts. (author)