2024-05-13 - NITheCS Colloquium: 'Gamma-ray bursts: The most powerful explosions in the universe' ..

2024-05-13 - NITheCS Colloquium
Gamma-ray bursts: The most powerful explosions in the universe
Prof Soebur Razzaque
(University of Johannesburg)
ABSTRACT
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) have kept astronomers fascinated since their accidental discovery in the early 1970s by military satellites. These bursts in mega electron-volt gamma rays briefly outshine the persistent gamma-ray emission from the entire universe. Now we know that one variety of these bursts, called long-duration GRBs, are death throws of extremely massive stars while another variety, called short-duration GRBs, are final episodes after mergers of two neutron stars in a binary system, emitting gravitational waves along with gamma rays. Located at cosmological distances, these are the most powerful electromagnetic explosions in the universe and can serve as laboratories for fundamental physics. In this talk I will present an overview of GRBs and recent discoveries related to them.
BIOGRAPHY
Soebur Razzaque is a Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University
of Johannesburg where he also holds the Directorship of the Centre for
Astro-Particle Physics (CAPP). Additionally, he has been appointed a
Research Professor at the George Washington University in the USA. His
research focuses on astrophysics of extreme sources in the universe such
as the gamma-ray bursts and active-galactic nuclei, in particular to
understand mechanisms for emission of high-energy cosmic rays, gamma
rays and neutrinos. He also researches on the fundamental properties of
these particles. Prof Razzaque is a Co-PI of the NITheCS Research
Programme: ‘New insights into astrophysics and cosmology with theoretical
models confronting observational data’
.
More information:
University of Johannesburg Centre for Astro-Particle Physics (CAPP)
(bit.ly/3TNB3sq)