"GAMMA RAY BURSTS: THE BRIGHTEST EXPLOSIONS IN
THE UNIVERSE"
A few times a day the sky is lit up by brilliant flashes
of
gamma-rays. Though discovered more than three decades
ago, astronomers
were in the dark about the origin of these bursts.
The speaker will
present evidence that decisively demonstrate that
many gamma-ray
bursts (GRB) are located at cosmological distances.
These bursts are
then the most brilliant astronomical objects.
There are good reasons
to suspect that GRBs may well be responsible for the
highest energy
cosmic rays in the Universe and are appearing to be attractive
targets
for gravitational wave interferometers, TeV and neutrino
telescopes.
It has been speculated that GRBs mark the end states
of massive stars
and the birth of spinning black holes or highly magnetized
neurtrons
stars from which the energy to fuel these brilliant
bursts is somehow
extracted. The talk will end with a presentation of a
concept of a dedicated
facility to study these engimatic objects as well use
GRBs to probe
star formation and intergalactic medium in the early
Universe.