Relative spacetime transformations in gamma-ray bursts

GRB 991216 and its relevant data acquired from the BATSE and the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and Chandra satellites are used as a prototypical case to test the theory linking the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) to the process of vacuum polarization occurring during the formation phase of a black hole endowed with electromagnetic structure. The relative spacetime transformation paradigm is presented. It relates the observed signals of GRBs to their past light cones, defining the events on the worldline of the source that is essential for the interpretation of the data. Since GRBs present regimes with unprecedentedly large Lorentz factors, and also sharply varying with time, particular attention is given to the constitutive equations relating the four time variables: the comoving time, the laboratory time, the arrival time, and the arrival time at the detector corrected by the cosmological effects. This paradigm is at the very foundation of any possible interpretation of the data of GRBs.