| Speaker: | Wen-fai Fong (Northwestern) |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Origins of the Universe’s Fastest Transients |
| Date (JST): | Thu, Jan 20, 2022, 11:00 - 12:00 |
| Place: | Zoom |
| Related File: | 2760.pdf |
| Abstract: | When we look up at the night sky, we see a static universe. However, observational surveys have revealed that our universe is dynamic with a myriad of transient events. Two of the universe's most fascinating and fastest explosive transients are short gamma-ray bursts and fast radio bursts. While short gamma-ray bursts originate from neutron star mergers and are connected to the nascent and revolutionary field of multi-messenger astronomy, the precise origins of fast radio bursts remain uncertain despite over 500 events known to date. In this talk, I will discuss these two populations of transients and our quest to understand their origins through their host galaxy environments. I will describe our ongoing observational campaigns to build legacy samples of their host galaxy environments and extract crucial information on their stellar populations through state-of-the-art modeling techniques. These studies represent leading efforts to understand the formation and evolution of neutron stars and their binaries over cosmic time. |
