We provide a brief review of the current situation concerning gamma ray bursts, with emphasis on the role that particle physics may play in the interesting phenomena. The current understanding of GRB origins allows for a large range of physical processes from primordial black hole evaporation to neutron star and black hole collisions. There does not seem to be a simple standard luminosity function and the burst times range from ms to 1000 s of seconds five orders of magnitude. It is likely that some type of fireball model is needed to explain the GRBs. No counterparts of GRB have been detected. We indicate some ways in which progress can be made in either the study of the fine time structure (~μs) or the detection of very high energy photons (>100 GeV to >100 TeV). We also indicate how a small but unique class of the GRB could come from primordial black hole evaporation.
Primordial black-hole evaporation and the quark-gluon phase transition
