Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2009 APS April Meeting
Volume 54, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, May 2–5, 2009; Denver, Colorado
Session R5: Women and Minorities in Multi-Messenger Astronomy of Gamma-Ray Bursts |
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Sponsoring Units: GGR DAP COM CSWP Chair: Pablo Laguna, Georgia Institute of Technology Room: Governor's Square 15 |
Monday, May 4, 2009 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
R5.00001: Gamma Ray Burst Observations with LIGO Invited Speaker: A new era in gravitational wave astronomy is about to begin, as the LIGO and Virgo laser interferometers are preparing for the operation of enhanced detectors at unprecedented sensitivity. Right at the beginning of the observational era, most interesting science will come from multi-messenger observations, where the gravitational wave signal has an electromagnetic counterpart; in particular, Gamma Ray Bursts have been the focus of LIGO searches since the early days of its data acquisition. Short Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are believed to be produced in the merger of a neutron star binary or a neutron star-black hole binary, thus producing a gravitational wave signature that can be targeted with templated searches for compact binary coalescences. At the same time, sensitive, unmodeled burst searches are also implemented to cover other possible models for both short and long GRBs. Information on the progenitor (time, source location) is used to increase the sensitivity of the search and, in the event of a detection, confidence in the result. For close events, as in the case of GRB070201, even the absence of a detection yields useful insights in the physics of GRBs. In this talk I will review LIGO's effort for the observation of Gamma Ray Bursts, with methods, interpretations and prospects, in the upcoming era of Enhanced and Advanced LIGO. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, May 4, 2009 2:06PM - 2:42PM |
R5.00002: The Progenitors of Short Gamma-Ray Bursts Invited Speaker: Recent years have witnessed dramatic progress in our understanding of short gamma-ray burst (SGRB) sources. There is now general agreement that SGRBs -- or at least a substantial subset of them -- are capable of producing directed outflows of relativistic matter with a kinetic luminosity exceeding by many millions that of active galactic nuclei. Given the twin requirements of energy and compactness, it is widely believed that SGRB activity is ultimately ascribable to a modest fraction of a solar mass of gas accreting onto a stellar mass black hole or to a precursor stage whose inevitable end point is a stellar mass black hole. Astrophysical scenarios involving the violent birth of a rapidly rotating neutron star, or an accreting black hole in a merging compact binary driven by gravitational wave emission are reviewed, along with other possible alternatives. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, May 4, 2009 2:42PM - 3:18PM |
R5.00003: Neutrino Messages from Gamma Ray Bursts Invited Speaker: The mystery of where and how Nature accelerates the highest energy cosmic rays (up to 10$^{20}$ eV) is still unresolved a century after their discovery. Energetics considerations predict on the order of 10 neutrino detections per kilometer squared per year pointing back at the sources of cosmic rays. Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have been postulated as one of the more plausible sources of extragalactic cosmic rays and thus high energy neutrinos. The idea of a kilometer scale neutrino telescope is now becoming a reality at the South Pole with the construction of IceCube. Detection of extraterrestrial high energy neutrinos will open new avenues in astrophysics and neutrino physics. A positive observation of neutrinos in coincidence with a GRB would identify these objects as one of the sources of the highest energy cosmic rays and would provide invaluable information about the processes responsible for GRBs. In this presentation I summarize the results from searches for neutrinos from GRBs and similar phenomena with IceCube and its predecessor, AMANDA. I review the status of the construction and operation of IceCube. Finally, I outline future directions for IceCube, in particular concerning multi-messenger studies of GRBs. [Preview Abstract] |
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