Black hole evaporation and quantum gravity Hawking's seminal result, that black holes behave as black bodies with a non-vanishing temperature, suggests that black holes should evaporate. However, Hawking's derivation is incomplete as it neglects the backreaction between radiation and geometry. Including it requires to incorporate quantum gravity. This talk focuses on the description of the […]
Satellite Constellations & Astronomy: What is the problem? What are we doing about it? In recent years, large satellite constellations have been launched into low-Earth orbit to provide low-latency, global communication coverage. As a result, the number of satellites in orbit has surged from approximately 2,500 to over 10,000, raising concerns about the sustainability of […]
Optical spectroscopy and imaging of blazars for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory Blazars are the brightest persistent sources in the high-energy and very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray sky. Because their UV/optical radiation is often dominated by non-thermal, and, in the case of BL Lacs, featureless continuum radiation, the determination of their redshift is extremely difficult. Only about […]
Finding evidence for self-enrichment and supermassive stars in forming globular clusters Self-enrichment is one of the leading explanations for chemical anomalies in globular clusters. In this scenario, a polluter star enriches a forming cluster with its yields, likely ejecting radioactive 26Al into its surroundings. Young massive star clusters, as potential progenitors of globular clusters, provide […]
From Research to Practice: Applying Artificial Intelligence in the Insurance Industry This presentation provides insights into the practical applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in the insurance sector. Using examples from our work at ControlExpert, I will demonstrate how advanced image recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies are leveraged to automate and […]
Dark Matter Searches with VERITAS and Dark100 Indirect dark matter searches are an important piece of the search for dark matter. One indirect search method is to use very-high-energy (E > 100 GeV) gamma rays as a probe of dark matter annihilation or decay in dark-matter-rich astrophysical systems. Gamma rays in this energy range can […]
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays: Constraints on the maximum-energy distribution of the sources and the possible role of ultra-fast outflows in active galactic nuclei An open question in the search for ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray (UHECR) sources is whether they are few and prominent or if a large population of sources collectively contributes to the diffuse flux. Motivated […]
Forcing neutrinos to obey the holographic principle Gravity does not like the vast amounts of states present in QFT, and quantum gravitational effects are expected to drastically reduce the dimension of the QFT Hilbert space. This is e.g. achieved by "operator dressing", which changes the commutation relations of quantum fields. In https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.11016 we build a […]
Exploring the Universe at the Highest Energies: when Particle Physics and Astronomy meet High-energy neutrinos propagating over cosmological distances are the ideal messenger particles for astrophysical phenomena, but the neutrino landscape above 10 PeV is still mostly unexplored. At these extreme energies, neutrinos can image the most extreme objects in remote corners of our cosmos […]
Particle tracking and identification with Timepix-series detector setups in nuclear, particle and astrophysics In high energy physics experiments, hybrid pixel detectors are an integral part of the tracking systems closest to the interaction points, where their good spatial resolution and high radiation resilience allow for particle tracking by connection of “dots” registered in different layers […]
Introduction to the Space Science and Engineering Initiative, and Opportunities and Applications for the Next Generation of X and gamma-ray Detector Systems and Technologies The Space Science and Engineering Initiative (SSEI) was created as a joint effort between the UHM College of Engineering (CoE) and the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) for the establishment of an […]
Fundamental physics with high-energy and ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos High-energy cosmic neutrinos probe fundamental physics at scales of energy and distance otherwise unreachable, where new physics may manifest. Since the discovery of TeV-PeV astrophysical neutrinos in 2013, we have explored this progressively more broadly and with increasing precision, thanks to a growing number of detected neutrinos […]
