ABBL-iTHEMS Joint Astro Seminar
61 events
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Seminar
Towards EeV Neutrino Astronomy with GRAND
April 18 (Tue) at 14:00 - 15:15, 2023
Kumiko Kotera (Director of Research, Institute of Astrophysics, France)
We are living exciting times: we are now able to probe the most violent events of the Universe with diverse messengers (cosmic rays, neutrinos, photons and gravitational waves). One challenge to complete the multi-messenger picture resides in the highest energies, as no ultra-high energy neutrinos have been observed yet. This challenge could be undertaken by the GRAND (Giant Radio Array for Neutrino Detection) project, which aims at detecting ultra-high energy particles, with a colossal array of 200'000 antennas over 200'000 km2, split into ~20 sub-arrays of ~10'000 km2 deployed worldwide. In this talk, we will present preliminary designs and simulation results, plans for the ongoing, staged approach to construction, and the rich research program made possible by the proposed sensitivity and angular resolution.
Venue: Common Room #246-248 / via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Cosmic magnetism and its effects on the observed properties of ultra high-energy cosmic rays
March 10 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2023
Ellis Owen (JSPS International Research Fellow, Theoretical Astrophysics Group, Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University)
Ultra high-energy (UHE) cosmic rays (CRs) from distant sources interact with intergalactic radiation fields, leading to their spallation and attenuation through photo-hadronic processes. Their deflection and diffusion in large scale intergalactic magnetic fields (IGMFs), in particular those associated with Mpc-scale structures, alter the cumulative cooling and interactions of a CR ensemble to modify their spectral shape and composition observed on Earth. In this talk, I will demonstrate the extent to which IGMFs can affect observed UHE CRs, and show that source population models are degenerate with IGMF properties. Interpretation of observations, including the endorsement or rejection of any particular UHE CR source classes, needs careful consideration of the structural properties and evolution of IGMFs. Future observations providing tighter constraints on IGMF properties will significantly improve confidence in assessing UHE CR sources and their intrinsic CR production properties.
Venue: via Zoom / Common Room #246-248
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Understanding kilonova spectra and identification of r-process elements
January 20 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2023
Nanae Domoto (Ph.D. Student, Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University)
Binary neutron star (NS) merger is a promising site for the rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (r-process). The radioactive decay of newly synthesized elements powers electromagnetic radiation, as called kilonova. The detection of gravitational wave from a NS merger GW170817 and the observation of the associated kilonova AT2017gfo have provided with us the evidence that r-process happens in the NS merger. However, the abundance pattern synthesized in this event, which is important to understand the origin of the r-process elements, is not yet clear. In this talk, I will first introduce an overview and current understanding of kilonova. Then, I will discuss our recent findings of elemental features in photospheric spectra of kilonova toward identification of elements.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Mergers of neutron star-neutron star (or black hole) binaries as r-process sites
January 13 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2023
Shinya Wanajo (Senior Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Germany)
The discovery of an electromagnetic counterpart (kilonova) associated with GW170817 confirms that binary neutron star (NS) mergers are at least one of sites of r-process nucleosynthesis. However, there is no observational evidence that black hole (BH)-NS mergers are r-process sites. In this talk, we overview the latest work of nucleosynthesis based on long-term hydrodynamics simulations of NS-NS and BH-NS mergers covering early dynamical and late post-merger mass ejections. We also briefly discuss a possible constraint on nuclear equations of state.
Venue: via Zoom / Common Room #246-248
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Modelling Optical Signals from Magnetar-Driven Supernovae
December 20 (Tue) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Conor Omand (Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Sweden)
Many energetic supernovae are thought to be powered by the rotational energy of a highly-magnetized, rapidly-rotating neutron star. The emission from the associated luminous pulsar wind nebula (PWN) can affect the system in different ways, including accelerating the ejecta, ionizing the ejecta, and breaking the spherical symmetry through hydrodynamic instabilities or large scale asymmetries. Modeling the observables from these processes; the light curves, spectrum, and polarization; is essential from understanding the nature of the central engine. I will present the results of a radiative transfer study looking at the effects of a PWN on the supernova nebular spectrum, and the preliminary results from a more physically motivated light curve model for parameter inference, and a study examining the polarization that arises due to hydrodynamic instabilities in the ejecta of engine-driven supernovae.
Venue: Common Room #246-248 / via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Quantum kinetics of neutrinos in high-energy astrophysical phenomena
December 9 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Hiroki Nagakura (Specially Appointed Assistant Professor (NAOJ Fellow), Division of Science, NAOJ)
Neutrinos are the most mysterious and elusive particles in the standard model of particle physics. They play important roles in core-collapse supernovae and binary neutron star mergers as driving mass-ejection, synthesizing heavy elements including r-process nuclei, and neutrino signals from these sources. This exhibits the importance of accurate modeling of neutrino radiation field in these phenomena, which will be used to connect neutrino physics to multi-messenger astronomy. It has recently been suggested that neutrino-flavor conversion (or neutrino-oscillation) can ubiquitously occur in these astrophysical environments, exhibiting the requirement of quantum kinetic treatments in the modeling of neutrino transport. In this seminar, I will give an overview of the quantum kinetics neutrino transport and then introduce its recent progress, paying a special attention to the connection to astrophysics. I will also present the latest results of our numerical simulations of collective neutrino oscillations, which can be properly accounted for only by quantum kinetic framework.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Energy partition in Weibel-mediated shock waves: from Supernova Remnants to Gamma-Ray Bursts
November 24 (Thu) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Arno Vanthieghem (Princeton-NINS Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, USA)
Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae provide ideal environments for efficient energy channeling between different plasma species through collective processes such as collisionless shock waves. Extensively studied in astrophysical and laboratory environments, observations and kinetic simulations indicate strong electron heating in the precursor of collisionless shock waves propagating in unmagnetized electron-ion plasmas. We outline a theoretical model accounting for electron heating via a Joule-like process through the interplay between pitch-angle scattering in the microturbulence and the coherent electrostatic field induced by the difference in inertia between species. Using analytical kinetic estimates, semi-analytical Monte Carlo methods, and ab-initio Particle-In-Cell simulations, we demonstrate the validity of this model in the relativistic regime relevant to the afterglow emission of gamma-ray burst and extend it to characterize the electron-to-ion-temperature ratio in the downstream of nonrelativistic high-Mach numbers shock waves relevant for supernova remnants and laboratory experiments.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
UHECR anisotropy: effects of the Galactic magnetic field on the UHECR correlation studies
November 4 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Ryo Higuchi (Special Postdoctoral Researcher, Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR))
Telescope Array (TA) and Auger experiments reported anisotropies in the arrival direction of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). In the current correlation studies between UHECRs and source candidates, the Auger experiment reported a correlation between the flux model of assumed sources and UHECR events and suggested a 10% contribution of starburst galaxies (SBGs) to the anisotropy of UHECRs. However, they do not consider the effect of coherent deflection by the galactic magnetic field (GMF), and they should significantly affect the results of the correlation studies. In this talk, we introduce a current study of UHECR anisotropy and the effect of GMF on them.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Magnetic fields at extragalactic scales: origin from the early universe?
October 7 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Ryo Namba (Senior Research Scientist, iTHEMS)
Blazar observations have provided tantalizing evidence for the presence of magnetic fields in the extragalactic regions, where astrophysical processes may not be an efficient source for their generation. While a natural speculation is to associate the production of such large-scale magnetic fields to inflationary physics, it has been known that magnetogenesis solely from inflation is quite challenging. In this talk I will discuss some mechanisms, successful/unsuccessful, for production of magnetic fields in the primordial universe, as well as the constraints from theoretical consistencies and observational data.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Hyperons in neutron stars: fast cooling, Joule heating and hyperon superfluidity
September 26 (Mon) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Filippo Anzuini (Postdoc Fellow, Department of Astronomy, Monash University, Australia)
Neutron stars challenge current models of highly dense matter. Despite be- ing the targets of numerous observational campaigns (e.g. gravitational-wave searches and X-ray observations), their equation of state is still unknown. One of the most exciting possibilities is that “unconventional” particles such as hy- perons may appear in neutron star cores. Hyperons have a major impact on the observed thermal luminosity, because they accelerate the cooling rate via direct Urca processes, which copiously increase the neutrino emission from the core. Such mechanism is often considered to be a key signature of hyperon concentrations at high densities. Hyperon superfluidity plays a major role as well, because it can suppress the neutrino emissivity exponentially. The hope is that a comparison of the theoretical cooling curves against the available data of thermally-emitting neutron star can hint towards the existence of hyperons and their superfluidity. There is one ingredient, however, that is often neglected in neutron star cooling models: internal heating. The magnetic field of neutron stars decays due to the dissipation of the electric currents circulating in the crust, generating substantial Joule heating in the shallower layers. The ther- mal power generated by this process can counterbalance hyperon fast cooling, making it difficult to infer the presence of hyperons from the available thermal luminosity data, and complicating the link between measured thermal emission and internal composition. We show that this is the case for magnetars, because their crustal temperature is almost independent of hyperon direct Urca cooling in the core, regardless of whether hyperons are superfluid or not. Likewise, ther- mal luminosity data of moderately magnetized neutron stars are not suitable to extract information about the internal composition, as long as hyperons are superfluid.
Venue: Hybrid Format (Common Room 246-248 and Zoom)
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
MeV gamma-ray all sky simulation
September 16 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Naomi Tsuji (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Kanagawa University)
The MeV gamma-ray domain is the only unexplored window among recent multiwavelength observations in astrophysics, often referred to as the "MeV gap". To fulfill this gap, there are several ongoing and planned projects of MeV gamma-ray telescopes. The measurement of MeV gamma rays (both continuum and line emission) would give us new insight into many topics in astrophysics, such as relativistic jets, particle acceleration, and origin of matter. In advance of the future MeV gamma-ray missions, we have been working on prediction of the MeV gamma-ray sky, which is helpful to determine what kinds of sources can be detectable with the future telescopes. In order to explore the MeV gamma-ray sources, we performed a catalog cross-matching between the hard X-ray (Swift/BAT) and GeV gamma-ray (Fermi/LAT) catalogs, resulting in 145 firmly cross-matched sources. Combined with the Galactic diffuse emission, which is calculated by GALPROP to reconcile the cosmic-ray and gamma-ray spectra with observations by AMS-02, Voyager, and Fermi-LAT, the all-sky maps in the MeV gamma-ray band can be produced. This is also used to investigate a long-standing problem in the MeV gamma-ray astrophysics: the origin of the diffuse emission from the inner Galaxy, measured by COMPTEL. I will report the analysis and results in detail, and introduce future missions of the MeV gamma-ray detectors.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Search for Galactic SNR PeVatrons: γ-ray observations in the vicinity of SNRs G106.3+2.7 & HB9
September 2 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Tomohiko Oka (Ph.D. Student, Division of Physics and Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)
Supernova remnants (SNRs) are believed to be the site of cosmic ray acceleration up to PeV (called PeVatron), but there is no conclusive observational evidence. The possible reason is that only young SNRs (t_age < 1 kyr) can accelerate CRs up to PeV, and then the particles escape at the early stage, thus, the opportunity to observe them is limited. To investigate this scenario, we observed and analyzed the following two SNRs. First, we focused on SNR G106.3+2.7, the most promising SNR as a PeVatron, since 100 TeV gamma rays have been detected with air shower experiments. With the gamma-ray observation results, we discussed the origin of the PeV CR in the vicinity of this middle-aged SNR (t_age = 5-10 kyr) and then obtained the following interpretation: CRs accelerated at the SNR in the past are illuminating the molecular cloud and producing gamma rays at present. Second, we analyzed the observation data around SNR HB9 and newly found gamma-ray emissions outside the SNR shell at the molecular cloud region. The gamma-ray emission can be explained by the protons accelerated and escaped from the SNR in the past. Therefore, we have attempted to measure the time evolution of the maximum acceleration energy at the SNR by comparing the gamma-ray spectra at the SNR shell and cloud regions. In this seminar, I will report the analysis results of those two SNRs.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Testing Astrophysical Models from the Shadow of the Galactic Center Black Hole
August 26 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Yosuke Mizuno (T.D. Lee Fellow / Associate Professor, Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China)
We present the first Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations of Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the Galactic center source associated with a supermassive black hole. These observations were conducted in 2017 using a global interferometric array of eight telescopes operating at a wavelength 1.3 mm. A variety of imaging and modeling analyses all support an image that is dominated by a bright, thick ring with a diameter of ~50 micro-arcsecond. Using a large suite of numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the EHT images of Sgr A* are consistent with the expected appearance of a Kerr black hole with mass ∼4 million solar mass, which is inferred to exist at this location based on previous infrared observations of individual stellar orbits, as well as maser proper-motion studies. Our model comparisons disfavor scenarios where the black hole is viewed at high inclination (i > 50 deg), as well as non-spinning black holes and those with retrograde accretion disks. Our results provide direct evidence for the presence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. In this talk, I will focus on more theoretical interpretation and model comparison to understand the accretion flow properties nearby Sgr A*.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Long-term evolution of a supernova remnant hosting a double neutron star binary
July 1 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Tomoki Matsuoka (Ph.D. Student, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University)
Stellar mass loss is one of the crucial elements which determine the fate of progenitors of core-collapse supernovae (SNe). Since the material released from the progenitor will be distributed as circumstellar medium (CSM), it can also have an influence on the subsequent evolution of the SN or supernova remnant (SNR). Despite its importance, mass loss histories predicted by stellar evolution models have not been incorporated with modeling for SNRs. As a first step, we investigate the dynamical evolution of an ultra-stripped supernova remnant (USSNR), originated from a type of core-collapse SN explosion proposed to be a candidate formation site of a double neutron star binary. By accounting for the mass-loss history of the progenitor binary using a model developed by a previous study, we construct the large-scale structure of the CSM up to a radius ∼100 pc, and simulate the explosion and subsequent evolution of a USSN surrounded by such a CSM environment. We find that the CSM encompasses an extended region characterized by a hot plasma with a temperature ∼10^8 K located around the termination shock of the wind from the progenitor binary (∼10 pc), and the USSNR blast wave is drastically weakened while penetrating through this hot plasma. Radio continuum emission from a young USSNR is sufficiently bright to be detectable if it inhabits our galaxy but faint compared to the observed Galactic SNRs. In this seminar I will talk about the background of the connection between the models for stellar evolution and SNRs, the details of our methods, and future prospects.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Core-collapse Supernova Models with Heavy Axion-like Particles
June 3 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Kanji Mori (Research Institute of Stellar Explosive Phenomena (REISEP), Fukuoka University)
Axion-like particles (ALPs) are a class of hypothetical bosons which feebly interact with ordinary matter. The hot plasma of stars and core-collapse supernovae is a possible laboratory to explore physics beyond the standard model including ALPs. Once produced in a supernova, some of the ALPs can be absorbed by the supernova matter and affect energy transfer. We recently calculated the ALP emission in core-collapse supernovae and the backreaction on supernova dynamics consistently. It is found that the stalled bounce shock can be revived if the coupling between ALPs and photons is as high as $g_{a\gamma}\sim 10^{-9}$ GeV$^{-1}$ and the ALP mass is 40-400 MeV.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
The Hunt for Extraterrestrial Neutrino Counterparts
May 20 (Fri) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2022
Yannis Liodakis (Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Turku, Finland)
The origin of high-energy neutrinos is fundamental to our understanding of the Universe. Apart from the technical challenges of operating detectors deep below ice, oceans, and lakes, the phenomenological challenges are even greater. The sources are unknown, unpredictable, and we lack clear signatures. Neutrino astronomy therefore represents the greatest challenge faced by the astronomy and physics communities thus far. The possible neutrino sources range from accretion disks and tidal disruption events, through relativistic jets to galaxy clusters with blazar TXS 0506+056 the most compelling association thus far. Since then, immense effort has been put into associating AGN-jets with high-energy neutrinos, but to no avail. I will discuss our current efforts in understanding the multimessenger processes in the Universe, and once and for all proving or disproving if AGN-jets are neutrino emitters.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Coherent emission from 3D relativistic shocks
April 22 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Masanori Iwamoto (Kyushu University)
The origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs; Lorimer et al. 2007) is one of the unsolved problems in astrophysics. Many observations of FRBs indicate that FRBs must be coherent emission in the sense that coherently moving electrons radiate electromagnetic waves. In relativistic shocks, it is well known that coherent electromagnetic waves are excited by synchrotron maser instability (SMI) in the shock transition (Hoshino & Arons 1991). The SMI is also known as the emission mechanism of coherent radio sources such as auroral kilometric radiation at Earth and Jovian decametric radiation. Recently, some models of fast radio burst based on the coherent emission from relativistic shock via the SMI have been proposed (e.g., Lyubarsky 2014; Beloborodov 2017; Plotnikov & Sironi 2019; Metzger et al. 2019) and the SMI in the context of relativistic shocks attracts more attention from astrophysics. In this study, by performing the world’s first three-dimensional (3D) particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation of relativistic shocks, we will demonstrate that large-amplitude electromagnetic waves are indeed excited by the SMI even in 3D and that the wave amplitude is significantly amplified and comparable to that in pair plasmas due to a positive feedback process associated with ion-electron coupling. Based on the simulation results, we will discuss the applicability of the SMI for FRBs in this talk.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Toward modeling complete supernova neutrino emissions
March 11 (Fri) at 16:00 - 17:00, 2022
Yudai Suwa (Associate Professor, Department of Earth Science and Astronomy, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo / Affiliate Associate Professor, Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kyoto University)
Neutrinos are guaranteed observable from the next Galactic supernova (SN). Optical lights and gravitational waves are also observable but can be difficult to observe if SN location in the galaxy and the explosion details are unsuitable. The key to the next coming SN observation will be understanding various physical quantities using neutrinos first and then connecting them to other signals. In particular, understanding neutrinos in the late time (> 1 sec after the onset of explosion) is essential, since physics in this time scale has much smaller uncertainties than that of the early time. We should construct a simple and understandable neutrino model based on the late-time emissions. It allows us to tackle the physics in the early phase like the explosion mechanism. In this talk, I will discuss the following topics: 1) how to model the complete neutrino emissions from the very early phase up to the last observable event. 2) what physical quantities (e.g., mass and radius of neutron stars) can be extracted from observations using large statistical neutrinos as physics probes. 3) how to use these extracted physical quantities to link with the explosion mechanism of SN and multi-messenger observations.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Spin transport in ultracold atomic gases
February 18 (Fri) at 14:00 - 15:00, 2022
Yuta Sekino (Postdoctoral Researcher, Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR))
In condensed matter physics, transport measurement has played crucial roles in understanding fascinating phenomena such as superconductivity and quantum Hall and Kondo effects. In this talk, we discuss the usefulness of spin transport as a probe for many-body properties in ultracold atoms. In the first part, we focus on the conductivity of alternating spin current, which includes information on superfluid gap, pseudogap, and topological phase transition. In the latter part, we consider mesoscopic spin transport between two Fermi gases weakly connected with each other. Our analysis suggests that the spin current is sensitive to whether the gases have pseudogaps, which are gap-like structures in densities of states just above the superfluid transition temperature. In this talk, we also mention similarities of ultracold atoms to neutron star matter.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
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Seminar
Galactic archaeology with r-process elements
January 28 (Fri) at 10:00 - 11:30, 2022
Yutaka Hirai (JSPS Research Fellow, Department of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University / JSPS Research Fellow (Visiting Scholar), Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, USA)
Galactic archaeology studies the evolutionary histories of galaxies using information preserved in stars. Abundances of elements in stars are keys to understanding how the galaxies were evolved. It is, therefore, crucial to making it clear the origin of elements and the cycle of materials in galaxies. This talk will show the enrichment of heavy elements, including r-process elements, in dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way. Our high-resolution simulations of galaxies suggest that binary neutron star mergers play an important role in enriching r-process elements in dwarf galaxies and the Milky Way. I will also show that r-process enhanced stars in the Milky Way tend to form in dwarf galaxies previously accreted to the Milky Way. I will demonstrate that the abundance of r-process elements in stars can be used as an indicator for the early evolution of the Milky Way.
Venue: via Zoom
Event Official Language: English
61 events