Localization of Fast Radio Bursts, and Their Use as Probes of Cosmology - Jon Sievers (McGill University, Montreal)

Wednesday 15 Jan 2020, 12:00 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

Now known for over a decade, fast radio bursts (FRBs) remain some of the most enigmatic objects in astronomy. With vastly increased detection rates, new instruments are rapidly changing the landscape. Localization of large numbers of non-repeating FRBs remains a major hole in our understanding of FRBs, but that should change in the not far distant future from outrigger stations on instruments like HIRAX and CHIME.  Once large numbers of FRBs are localized, they also hold great promise as probes of cosmology and fundamental physics. I will describe localization efforts underway at McGill, along with some of the technical challenges, along with some of the cosmology we can hope to probe with new FRB measurements.