Colloquium Abstract - Lloyd-Ronning - 2024Sep20

September 20, 2024

11:00am Mountain

Nicole Lloyd-Ronning (LANL)

 

Illuminating the Physics of Our Universe with Gamma-ray Bursts

 

Abstract

The most luminous objects in our universe, gamma-ray bursts, are spectacular laboratories for investigating a number of unsolved problems in physics and astronomy.  In particular, they can help us understand the physics of relativistic plasmas, as well as unlock long-standing mysteries of our high redshift universe.  However, advances in theoretical and computational modeling of these extreme astrophysical transients have not yet caught up to the observations.  In particular, radio observations of both long and short gamma-ray bursts have provided tantalizing evidence that our standard view of these luminous events is missing key physics.  In this talk we present a multi-code effort to model gamma-ray bursts across many scales in length and time. We will describe recent progress in unveiling the physics behind these extreme objects, from the launch of the relativistic jet, to the microphysics of the dissipation processes, to new exciting results on their circumstellar environments and progenitor systems.  Finally, we will show how different properties of these systems evolve as a function of redshift, and how we can use them to learn about massive stellar evolution over cosmic time.


Local Host: Dillon Dong

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