Colloquium Abstract - Plant - 2026Mar06

March 6, 2026

11:00am Mountain

Kathryn Plant (NRAO)

 

Radio Probes of Our Galaxy’s Elusive Particle Accelerators

 

Abstract

Several features of the cosmic ray particle spectrum suggest that sources within our Galaxy supply the observed particle flux well beyond PeV energies, and hence beyond the energies achieved by ordinary supernova remnants. Radio observations have key roles in the multiwavelength and multimessenger puzzle of identifying our Galaxy’s Pevatron particle accelerators. In this talk, I will present a cosmic ray detector for the OVRO-LWA that detects 100—1000 PeV cosmic rays via the brief (~5ns) bursts of radio emission produced by their collision with our atmosphere. I will also present my plans as a new Jansky fellow to use radio imaging to assess Pevatron candidates identified by their ultrahigh energy gamma ray emission. Since the trajectories of charged cosmic rays do not point to their sources, identifying these sources will require a combination of approaches, including imaging the associated neutral messengers as well as radio-derived estimates of the mass spectrum of the cosmic ray particles themselves.


Local Host: Brian Svoboda

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