Chasing Gamma-Ray Bursts from the Early Universe
Dr. Jochen Greiner
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik Garching
Abstract: Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) are thought to originate in the explosion of massive stars. Since the gamma-ray radiation during the burst is so enormously bright, GRBs can be seen back in time to the epoch when the very first stars formed. I will report on results obtained with GROND, a 7-channel imager chasing GRB afterglows in the near-infrared and optical passbands since 5 years. Besides our high discovery rate of high-redshift GRBs, GROND also provides unique data from which new insight into the underlying physics can be derived for several phenomena like late-time engine activity or magnetic field variations. I will also talk about a new concept for a future gamma-ray (burst) detector, called GRIPS, which is extremely sensitive to the polarization of gamma-rays, and promises to make substantial progress in our understanding of the emission process in GRBs.
Seminar takes place on Tuesday, December 18th 2012 at 2:00 PM
NUCLEAR & PLASMA SCIENCES SOCIETY CHAPTER
IEEE Czechoslovakia section
http://www.ieee.cz/en/nps