Colloq Abstract - Cordes
May 10, 2019
11:00am Mountain
Jim Cordes (Cornell)
The Enigmas of Fast Radio Bursts
Abstract
Fast radio bursts of extragalactic origin show unprecedented energies compared to Galactic pulsars and they show unique spectro-temporal signatures. In one case a very large Faraday rotation measure is seen to evolve rapidly. To date most FRBs have not repeated and none of the repeating FRBs appears to be periodic. I will discuss possible explanations for these phenomena along with other topics that include the role of radio propagation effects in FRB surveys and follow up observations and using such effects to probe host galaxies and circumsource environments. A source model involving very young magnetars will be assessed as will the prospects for using FRBs to probe the intergalactic medium.
