The light curves of low-mass X-ray binaries show variability on timescales from milliseconds to months. The shorter (sub-second) variability is particularly interesting because it is thought to probe the inner region of the accretion disk and the central compact object. X-ray spectral-timing is a new type of analysis that seeks to investigate how matter behaves […]
Algorithms from the field of pattern recognition are used throughout industry and academia. In particular machine learning algorithms have become an established technique in modern experimental physics, for instance for the discrimination between desired measurements and background. In recent years, the concept of deep learning has gained considerable attention in the machine learning community and […]
Precision measurements of the kinematics of weak decays offer the only model- independent (direct) approach to investigate the absolute neutrino mass scale in a laboratory experiment. In this talk I will review the status of direct neutrino mass searches based on beta decay of tritium and electron capture in 163Ho and give an overview of […]
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a 1 km3 optical Cherenkov detector embedded deep in the ice sheet that covers the geographic South Pole. Since its completion in the austral summer of 2010, data from the observatory have provided the first evidence for a flux of extraterrestrial high-energy neutrinos of multiple flavors. At the same time, […]
Spectral and anisotropy properties of IceCube astrophysical neutrino signals reveal evidence for a sizeable Galactic contribution to the neutrino flux in the Southern Hemisphere. I will review this evidence and relate it to the absence of Galactic component signature in the muon neutrino signal from the Northern sky. I will discuss implications of the possible […]
Gamma Ray Bursts are among the most powerful astrophysical phenomena. In the recent past many observations shed light on their high-energy (HE, E>10 MeV) emission properties. In the seminar I will describe the observations of GRBs by the currently operating HE satellites AGILE and Fermi. I will discuss the main observational properties of the detected […]
