A Possible Effect of GRB 990510 on the Solar Wind [87.06] R.S. Fritzius www.shadetreephysics.com Presented as a poster at the 203rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Atlanta, GA 4-8 January 2004 Installed as a web page on 06 May 2006. Latest Page Update, 20 Apr 2019. Abstract On May 10, 1999 there was an unprecedented solar wind disturbance, the onset of which began approximately two hours after the arrival of the extremely high energy gamma ray burst GRB 990510 from a direction near the south celestial pole. It is postulated that the highest energy portion of GRB 990510's radiation induced photodisentegration of the majority of the atomic nucleii in the region of space below the solar-wind disk. The rapidly moving nuclear decay products then impelled the solar wind disk upward and above the ecliptic, leading to the measured decrease in solar wind density.

Post Conference Note The slow solar wind disk is too thick, above and below the ecliptic, and the material density outside the disk is on the order of 10 to 50 percent of that in the most dense part of the disk. Therefore, it may be impossible to attribute the observed decrease in the solar wind density strictly to a lifting of the disk. (ACE and WIND measurements do did show a long term Vz, northward, component in the solar wind's velocity on 10 May 1999, which could be considered a "lifting.") The ramp-like decrease in density, which goes all the way down to less than two percent of normal density, might have resulted from a general material dispersion in the slow solar wind. That dispersion may have been caused by the gamma induced photodissociation of heavy nuclei, as described in this poster. [Added 6 Jul 2006. Modified 8 Jul 2006.]

Poster frames follow. Some explanatory notes have been added.

Note
The next frame shows a light curve for two cycles of a Ritzian relativity gamma-ray repeater. The "split peaks" of each
pulse correspond to a binary-to-extinction distance equal to the de Sitter c+v versus c-v overtaking distance. The
light curve, in this example, is for a single visible binary component. The more complex light curve of GRB 990510 may be
interpreted as evidence (in accordance with the Ritzian hypothesis) that both components of a binary system were visible.


Note
See the family of curves, from which this figure came, in the final poster frame.



Note
In 1920 two different researchers proposed that the neutron might be comprised of a proton and a
bound electron. See W.D. Harkins, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 42, 1956, (1920) and E. Rutherford,
Proc. Roy. Soc. A., 97, 374, (1920). It appears that Harkins may have priority on this issue.

Post Conference Note         The author no longer considers the lifting of the slow Solar wind disk (as         shown in the preceding diagram) to be a viable process, but rather that         the material in the Solar wind was explosively dispersed by Gamma-induced         photodissociation. [Added 07 Jul 2007.]

For Further Information Please See: A Ritzian Interpretation of Variable Stars shadetreephysics.com/binaries.htm Ritzian Gamma-Ray Bursts shadetreephysics.com/grbs.htm GRB 990510 and a Solar Wind Problem shadetreephysics.com/vel/solwin.htm