Abstract
We interpret the puzzling γ-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. © 1993 Kluwer Academic Publishers.