Nordita Astrophysics Seminars

Eleonora Troja, "Novel directions in the search for compact binary mergers"

Europe/Stockholm
Albano 3: 6228 - Mega (22 seats) (Albano Building 3)

Albano 3: 6228 - Mega (22 seats)

Albano Building 3

22
Description

https://stockholmuniversity.zoom.us/j/530682073

Compact binary mergers are prime sources of gravitational wave 
radiation and confirmed sites for the production of r-process 
elements. Key insights into their lives and aftermath can be gleaned 
through the study of short duration (<2 s) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), 
their afterglows and environment. In this talk, I will discuss the 
results of our comprehensive survey of short GRB host galaxies, 
highlighting the existence of a population of distant (z>1) mergers. I 
will then present the surprising detection of a kilonova in a nearby 
long duration GRB. Our work demonstrates that compact binary mergers 
can power high-energy transients of over a minute long duration, and 
that these represent a new, although possibly rare, electromagnetic 
counterpart of gravitational wave radiation.