Description:

Monday Observational Meetings for Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA), this week featuring:

Tanmoy Laskar (University of Bath)

Title: GRBs: The Radio Revolution

Abstract: Gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic explosions in the Universe, are ideal probes of extreme relativistic astrophysics. Observations and modeling of their X-ray to radio afterglow radiation provide crucial clues to understanding particle acceleration in relativistic shocks, explosion and jet launching mechanisms, and the nature of GRB progenitors. Such multi-wavelength studies have previously been hamstrung by the lack of sensitivity of radio facilities. I will present results demonstrating the incredible impact the VLA and ALMA are having in breaking parameter degeneracies, discovering elusive reverse shock signatures, and uncovering unexpected, new physics.

Host: Raffaella Margutti