NRAO/Socorro Colloquium Series

Roger Blandford

KIPAC-Stanford


Extreme Particle Acceleration

Observations of supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae, blazars and Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays exhibit evidence for remarkably efficient particle acceleration in a variety of cosmic locales. They suggest that strong shock fronts also grow magnetic field, that relativistic plasmas undergo violent instabilities where the acceleration is limited by radiation reaction and that internal relativistic motions within a relativistically moving source can have a profound effect on the observed variability that. These points will be discussed and illustrated by reference to well-observed sources such as the Crab Nebula, Tycho's supernova remnant, MKN 421 and the Perseus cluster. The importance of multi-wavelength observations will be stressed.




February 1, 2013
11:00 am

Array Operations Center Auditorium

All NRAO employees are invited to attend via video, available in Charlottesville Room 230, Green Bank Room 137 and Tucson N525.

Local Host: Dale Frail