Seeing into the immediate post-merger environment of a neutron star collision

Speaker: Aaron Tohuvavohu, University of Toronto

Date: February 27, 2023

Time: 4:00 – 5:00 pm

Location: IFS Seminar Room, 472 Willamette Hall

Abstract: The rich EM phenomenology in the first few hours after a compact object merger encodes the nature of the post-merger remnant, the neutron star equation of state, the velocity distribution of the fastest moving ejecta, and a wide array of other compelling physics. Unfortunately, the requirement to search, find, and classify a
counterpart within the large GW localization regions before targeted follow-up with sensitive instruments can begin, excludes access to these first few hours, even for the most well localized GW sources. The ability to promptly localize a GW source to within the field-of-view of a narrow field sensitive facility, would enable extraordinary science. I will discuss the science cases that require extremely early time observations, and the coordination, instruments, and infrastructure necessary to achieve it. This includes, all-sky GRB imagers with arcminute localization capabilities, novel gamma-ray analysis techniques, early warning GW detection, fast response space telescopes, and the infrastructure to coordinate them.

Host: Raymond Frey