Penn State is a major center of activity on the theory of gamma-ray bursts, as well as on developing and operating instrumentation for detecting GRB, e.g. Swift, Hobby-Eberly telescope, ICECUBE , AMANDA, Auger, LIGO , etc.
Course syllabus is here.
The first 2 lectures of the course are an
overview of gamma-ray bursts.
Lectures 3-4
and 5,
6
discuss some basic aspects of the standard model, as well as
elements of CR acceleration and UHE neutrinos
Student seminar & paper topics are here.