When:
Tuesday, April 9, 2019
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT
Where: Technological Institute, F160, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208 map it
Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students
Contact:
Pamela Villalovoz
(847) 491-3644
Group: Physics and Astronomy Astrophysics Seminars
Category: Academic
In the last decade, we have established the existence of extragalactic fast radio bursts (FRBs) of sub-millisecond durations, likely originating at cosmologically significant distances. Explaining the FRB phenomenon has proved a compelling challenge to theory, with the number of distinct models only this year being superseded by the 65 reported events. The high FRB occurrence rate (comparable to the core-collapse supernova rate), isotropic-equivalent luminosities comparable to the most luminous quasars, the wide range of intrinsic and propagation-induced phenomenology, and the repetition of at least a sub-sample of objects are particularly noteworthy. FRBs have also opened a powerful new window into otherwise unseen matter in the Universe. Observations of large FRB samples will help assess the baryon contents and physical conditions in the hot/diffuse circumgalactic, intracluster, and intergalactic medium, and test extant compact-object dark matter models. I will review the state of the field and its promise for the future.
Speaker: Vikram Ravi, Caltech
Host: Raffaella Margutti
Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics