GAMMA-RAY BURSTS FROM NEARBY NEUTRON-STARS

We interpret the puzzling gamma-ray bursts as emitted by cooling sparks from the surface of spasmodically accreting, old neutron stars. Their spiky, anisotropic radiation is oriented w.r.t. the galactic disk via interstellar accretion, whose orbital angular momentum tends to counteralign with the galactic spin; in this way, larger source numbers in directions of the galactic disk are compensated by smaller beaming probabilities, resulting in a near-isotropic arrival distribution, as observed by BATSE. The source distances range between 10 pc and 500 pc. Their radiated energies are of order 10(35) erg, corresponding to accreted clumps (blades) of typical mass 10(15) g per burst. Magnetic surface field strengths range between 10(10) and 10(12) G, somewhat weaker than those of newborn neutron stars.