Both observations and theoretical models suggest that the emissions in gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and the afterglows are beamed. We argue that the recent polarization measured in the afterglows gives further evidence of beaming in GRBs. In this approach, we adopted the polarization-magnitude relation of BL Lacertae objects to 4 GRBs with available polarization measurements and found that the data ...

Aims. There exists inevitable scatter in the intrinsic luminosity of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). If there is relativistic beaming source, viewing angle variation necessarily introduces function (ILF). Scatter ILF can cause selection bias where sources detected at distance have a greater median than those close by. Median divides any given population into equal halves. When functional form distribu...

We analyze the propagation of electromagnetic modes guided by periodic plasmonic structures. We use full-wave solutions of Maxwell equations to calculate dispersion of these modes and derive analytical description of their optical properties. Finally, we demonstrate that, at a certain frequency range that can be controlled by the geometry, diffraction of these guided states is strongly suppress...

The presence or lack of eclipses in the X-ray light curves of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) can be directly linked to the accreting system geometry. In the case where the compact object is stellar mass and radiates isotropically, we should expect eclipses by a main-sequence to sub-giant secondary star on the recurrence time-scale of hours to days. X-ray light curves are now available for l...

The overall dynamical evolution and radiation mechanism of γ-ray burst jets are briefly introduced. Various interesting topics concerning beaming in γ-ray bursts are discussed, including jet structures, orphan afterglows and cylindrical jets. The possible connection between γ-ray bursts and neutron stars is also addressed.

We examine the possibility that Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) represent the extreme end of the black hole X-ray binary (XRB) population. Based on their X-ray properties, we suggest that ULXs are persistently in a high/hard spectral state and we propose a new disk–jet model that can accomodate both a high accretion rate and a hard X-ray spectrum. Our model predicts that the modified disk em...

The new photometric space-borne survey missions CoRoT and Kepler will be able to detect minute flux variations in binary stars due to relativistic beaming caused by the line-of-sight motion of their components. In all but very short period binaries (P > 10 d), these variations will dominate over the ellipsoidal and reflection periodic variability. Thus, CoRoT and Kepler will discover a new obse...