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SED Director’s Seminar

April

07

Please join us for the SED Director’s Seminar hosted by the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, Code 661!

Henrike Fleischhack - Observing gamma-ray bursts with AMEGO-X
AMEGO-X, the All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer, is a mission concept proposed to the 2021 MIDEX AO. Pursuing multi-messenger astronomy, its goal is to study MeV gamma-ray signatures of cosmic accelerators such as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei, and supernova remnants. With its large field of view, AMEGO-X will survey the entire sky every few hours, and constantly monitor for GRBs and other transient events, identifying and studying the electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave signals from binary neutron star mergers. In this presentation, I will explain how and why AMEGO-X will search for GRB signals and show how many GRBs AMEGO-X is expected to detect.

Alyson Barker - BurstCube: Mission and Performance
Joint detections between gravitational waves and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) enables multi-messenger science and allows for constraints on the neutron star equation of state, tests of fundamental physics, and insight into the origin of the prompt emission. To increase the likelihood of these coincident detections, full sky coverage in the gamma-ray regime is needed. BurstCube is a 6U (10 x 20 x 30 cm) CubeSat designed for the detection and localization of GRBs in the 50 keV to 1 MeV energy band. BurstCube will expand sky-coverage and provide astronomical context to gravitational wave events detected by LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. The instrument is comprised of four individual detectors positioned at 45 degrees from the other to allow for full unocculted sky coverage. Each detector is comprised of a cesium iodide (CsI(Tl)) scintillation crystal coupled to an array of compact, low-power silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). BurstCube is currently undergoing integration and test and will launch end of 2022/beginning of 2023. This talk will detail the mission, performance, and current status of BurstCube.

Haocheng Zhang - Probing Blazar Hadronic Signatures with High-Energy Polarimetry
Blazars are relativistic jets from supermassive black holes that point very close to our line of sight. They are among the primary scientific targets for multi-messenger astronomy because they are very promising candidates for the origin of extragalactic cosmic rays and neutrinos. In this talk, I will present the novel opportunity to probe hadronic signatures in blazars with high-energy polarimetry. Photomeson and proton synchrotron leave characteristic marks in the X-ray and MeV gamma-ray polarization degree. Additionally, time-dependent X-ray polarization can diagnose particle acceleration mechanisms. NASA's IXPE, COSI, and AMEGO-X missions can therefore provide unique insights into the cosmic ray acceleration and neutrino emission in blazars.

 
Date April 07, 2022
Start/End Time 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location Microsoft Teams
Event Type Seminars/Colloquia
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