To explain the 400 millisecond delay, it suffices that the gamma-ray source be anywhere on a prolate ellipsoid with one focus at the black hole, and the other at Earth. The two equal minor axes of the ellipsoid are on the order of the geometric mean of 0.4 and 4 x 10^16, which (handwave, handwave) is around 10^8 light-seconds, or about 3 light-years. It's a very spindly ellipsoid. As Warren points out, we want the gamma-ray source to be as close to the disaster site as possible, and if it were *behind* the site, we could get it to within 0.2 light-seconds. That increases the excitation by a factor of four (is that right?), which isn't enough to overcome Warren's objections. On Sun, Feb 28, 2016 at 3:04 PM, Warren D Smith <warren.wds@gmail.com> wrote:
another way to see it: if there were enough nuclei for the grav-wave-exciting-nuclei to radiate gammas process to eat enough gravity-wave energy to produce the observed photon pulse -- then there ought to be enough atoms in that same cloud to block those gamma rays from reaching us.
Not buying it.
-- Warren D. Smith http://RangeVoting.org <-- add your endorsement (by clicking "endorse" as 1st step)
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