Physics Special Seminar - Professor Victoria Kaspi, McGill University

Title: 'The Mystery of Fast Radio Bursts'

11/4/2025
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Location
Wilder 202 and on Zoom
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Rowan Kowalsky

Abstract : Fast Radio Bursts are a recently discovered phenomenon consisting of brief (typically few millisecond) bursts of radio waves coming from far outside our Milky Way galaxy, indeed from cosmological distances.  Their origin is unknown.  I will review what is known about these mysterious sources, and how they can act as novel probes of the matter distribution in the Universe.  I will focus on results from the CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project, which uses a new Canadian digital radio telescope that is revolutionizing our view of the fast transient sky.  I will also introduce  the CHIME/FRB Outriggers, which are pioneering the technique of “synoptic" Very Long Baseline Interferometry, providing  precise sky localizations for >1000 CHIME FRBs, hence permitting host galaxy ID and redshift determinations.

Hosted by Assistant Professor Jens Mahlmann

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Location
Wilder 202 and on Zoom
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Rowan Kowalsky