Tel Aviv University


Tel Aviv University
Physics Colloquium

Academic Year  2000 - 2001


The colloquium is held at Melamed Hall (Room 6) in the Shenkar Physics Building, every Sunday at 16:10. Light refreshments are served outside Melamed Hall at 15:50. 

 

December 31, 2000

"The Largest Explosions in The Universe: Gamma Ray Bursts and Their Afterglow"

Dr. Re'em Sari
Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology


    The origin of GRBs have been a mystery for almost 30 years. Their sources emit a huge amount of energy on short time scales and the process involves extreme relativistic motion with bulk Lorentz factor of at least a few hundred. In recent years, "afterglow", emission in X-ray, optical, IR, and radio was detected. The afterglow can be measured up to months and even years after the few seconds GRB. We review the theory for the gamma-rays emission and the afterglow and show that it is strongly supported by observations. A recent detection of optical emission simultaneous with the GRB, well agrees with theoretical predictions and further constrains the free parameters of the models. We discuss the evidence that some of the bursts are jets, and discuss the prospects of polarization measurements. We review some of the recent clues for the progenitor of these enigmatic events.
 

Host: Dr. Ron Lifshitz, x5145
 
Next Colloquium Fall 2000 Schedule Spring 2001 Schedule
 

For more information or for directions to Melamed Hall please contact: Yardena Mori  +972-3-6408636

To suggest potential speakers or register feedback contact:  Ron Lifshitz  +972-3-6405145


Sponsored by:   The School of Physics & Astronomy, The Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University.