Fast radio bursts are millisecond-duration radio beacons from a so-far unidentified class of extragalactic sources first discovered about a decade ago. Their inferred distances, and therefore radio burst energies, challenge models based on known source classes, while their inferred rates suggest they are fairly common. While most sources have so-far...
Atmospheric leptons receive steady interest from several scientific communities. At low and intermediate energies, atmospheric neutrinos are the signal for studies of fundamental neutrino properties and at high energies, they constitute the background for the characterization of the features of the astrophysical neutrino flux. We have studied in depth the...
The ECAP will participate in the "Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften" on October 21. For more information, see the corresponding website of the Department Physik: click here.
The Gaia Mission - Overview, First Results, and future prospects The astrometric satellite Gaia was launched in December 2019. After a comprehensive commissioning phase Gaia began its nominal scientific measurements in mid 2014. Gaia’s main goal is the determination of precise astrometric data for more than one billion stars in...
The Astrophysics of BH-BH/NS-NS Mergers with LIGO/Virgo I will discuss the astrophysical importance of the recent LIGO/Virgo direct detections of gravitational-waves. Despite majority of the expectations, it was not neutron star mergers being detected first, but the series of exotic massive black hole mergers. I will describe the leading theories...
The gravitational wave detection of a binary neutron star merger: expectations, surprises, and prospects On August 17, 2017, Advanced LIGO & Virgo detected gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger. A short-duration gamma-ray burst was detected in temporal coincidence by the INTEGRAL and Fermi satellites. A few hours later,...
A new era in multi-messenger astronomy With the recent discoveries of gravitational waves and high-energy cosmic neutrinos, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era in Multi-Messenger astronomy. The exploration of the Universe through these new messengers, along with electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays, provides for new insights into...
Overview of Athena and the Wide Field Imager The Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics will be ESA's next large X-ray observatory. While the launch date (2028) seems far, the community has already now been very active in assembling the scientific goals for the Athena and thus the requirements on the...
SVOM - Space-based multiband astronomical Variable Objects Monitor The Chinese-French space mission SVOM (Space-based multi-band astronomical Variable Objects Monitor) is mainly designed to detect and localize Gamma-Ray Burst events (GRBs). The satellite, to be launched late 2021, embarks a set of gamma-ray, X-ray and optical imagers. Thanks to its pointing...
Survival in galaxy clusters: from ultra-diffuse to ultra-compact objects The diversity of low-mass cluster galaxies in terms of their size and stellar content is striking. So-called ultra-diffuse galaxies residing in the core of a massive galaxy cluster appear surprisingly intact and might be protected by a large dark matter content....