Week of Sep 8 - Sep 12
No Colloquium This Week!
Prospects for GRB Science with GLAST
by
Jonathan Granot
University of Hertfordshire, UK
Monday, Aug 11 2008
Socialization : 10:15 a.m.
Presentation : 10:30 a.m.
Location: NSSTC, Room 2096
320 Sparkman Drive
Huntsville, AL 35805
Abstract
Significant progress in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has followed the launch of space missions with relevant new capabilities. Good examples are the Burst And Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on board the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), which has put the GRB field on more solid ground by studying in detail the prompt emission from a large number of GRBs, BeppoSAX that has led to the detection of afterglows, and Swift, which has revolutionized our knowledge of the early afterglow and led to the detection of afterglows for GRBs of the short-hard class. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) has been successfully launched on June 11, 2008. Its Large Area Telescope (LAT) will extend the range of photon energies in which we could study the prompt and early afterglow emission in GRBs up to ~300 GeV, and it is much more sensitive compared to its predecessor - the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) on board CGRO that has detected ~GeV emission from a handful of GRBs and thus showed that GRBs indeed emit in these energies. Together with the GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM), the covered energy range will be spectacular (10 keV - 300 GeV). I will discuss what we hope to learn from GLAST both about the physics of the GRB prompt emission, including the radiation mechanism, the energy dissipation, the bulk Lorentz factor of the emitting region and its distance from the source, and about the diverse phenomenology found by Swift in the early X-ray afterglows.Biographical Sketch
Jonathan (Yoni) Granot did a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics (1996), an M.Sc. in Physics (1998), and a Ph.D. in physics (2001), all at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel. He then held two post-doctoral positions in the USA, first at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton (2001-2004), and then at Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford (2004-2007), before taking a permanent position in England, at the University of Hertfordshire, where he is currently a Reader in Astrophysics. Upon arrival to the UK, he received a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Jonathan does theoretical work, mainly in high-energy astrophysics, and in particular on gamma-ray bursts. His research interests also include soft gamma repeaters, gravitational lensing, high energy neutrinos, pulsar wind nebulae, relativistic fluid dynamics and MHD, structure of blast waves, and dynamics of relativistic jets. He is a member of the Swift Science Theory Team, and an Affiliated Scientist with the GLAST LAT Collaboration.-->
