Whether gamma-ray bursts are highly beamed or not is a very difficult but important problem that we are confronted with. Some theorists suggest that beaming effect usually leads to a sharp break in the afterglow light curve during the ultra-relativistic phase, with the breaking point determined by γ = 1/θ 0 , where γ is the Lorentz factor of the blastwave and θ 0 is the initial half opening angle of the ejecta, but numerical studies tend to reject the suggestion. We note that previous studies are uniformly based on dynamics that is not proper for non-relativistic blastwaves. Here we investigate the problem in more detail, paying special attention to the transition from the ultra-relativistic phase to the non-relativistic phase. Due to some crucial refinements in the dynamics, we can follow the overall evolution of a realistic jet till its velocity is as small as βc ∼ 10 −3 c. We find no obvious break in the optical light curve during the relativistic phase itself. However, an obvious break does appear at the transition from the relativistic phase to the Newtonian phase if the physical parameters involved are properly assumed. Generally speaking, the Newtonian phase is characterized by a sharp decay of optical afterglows, with the power law timing index α ∼ 1.8 -2.1. This is due to the quick lateral expansion at this stage.The quick decay of optical afterglows from GRB 970228, 980326, and 980519, and the breaks in the optical light curves of GRB 990123 and 990510 may indicate the presence of highly collimated γ-ray burst ejecta.

Very recently Spitler et al. (2016) and Scholz et al. (2016) reported their detections of sixteen additional bright bursts from the direction of the fast radio burst (FRB) 121102. This repeating FRB is inconsistent with all the catastrophic event models put forward previously for hypothetically nonrepeating FRBs. Here we propose a different model, in which highly magnetized pulsars travel through asteroid belts of other stars. We show that a repeating FRB could originate from such a pulsar encountering lots of asteroids in the belt. During each pulsar-asteroid impact, an electric field induced outside the asteroid has such a large component parallel to the stellar magnetic field that electrons are torn off the asteroidal surface and accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies instantaneously. Subsequent movement of these electrons along magnetic field lines will cause coherent curvature radiation, which can account for all the properties of an FRB. In addition, this model can self-consistently explain the typical duration, luminosity, and repetitive rate of the seventeen bursts of FRB 121102. The predicted occurrence rate of repeating FRB sources may imply that our model would be testable in the next few years.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are newly discovered radio transient sources. Their high dispersion measures indicate an extragalactic origin. But due to the lack of observational data in other wavelengths, their progenitors still remain unclear.Here we suggest the collisions between neutron stars and asteroids/comets as a promising mechanism for FRBs. During the impact process, a hot plasma fireball will form after the material of the small body penetrates into the neutron star surface. The ionized matter inside the fireball will then expand along the magnetic field lines. Coherent radiation from the thin shell at the top of the fireball will account for the observed FRBs. Our scenario can reasonably explain the main features of FRBs, such as their durations, luminosities, and the event rate. We argue that for a single neutron star, FRBs are not likely to happen repeatedly in a forseeable time span since such impacts are of low probability.We predict that faint remnant X-ray emissions should be associated with FRBs, but it may be too faint to be detected by detectors at work.

multi-partite entangled states are important for developing studies of quantum networking and quantum computation. To date, the largest number of particles that have been successfully manipulated is 14 trapped ions. Yet in quantum information science, photons have particular advantages over other systems. In particular, they are more easily transportable qubits and are more robust against decoherence. Thus far, the largest number of photons to have been successfully manipulated in an experiment is six. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, an eight-photon Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger state with a measured fidelity of 0.59 ± 0.02, which proved the presence of genuine eight-partite entanglement. This is achieved by improving the photon detection efficiency to 25% with a 300-mW pump laser. With this state, we also demonstrate an eight-party quantum communication complexity scenario. This eight-photon entangled-state source may be useful in one-way quantum computation, quantum networks and other quantum information processing tasks.