3:00-3:30pm Classroom 37-212

A Blind Search for Short Gamma-ray Burst Afterglows with CHIME
Speaker: Minori Shikauchi, University of British Columbia (in person)

Abstract:
Short gamma-ray bursts (sGRBs) are energetic and explosive events in the Universe.  The coincident detection of GRB 170817A and a gravitational wave (GW) from a binary neutron star (BNS) merger raises questions about the conditions in which BNS mergers cause sGRBs. In order to conduct a coincident search with sGRBs and related GW signals effectively, I am developing a blind search for afterglows of sGRBs which are not aimed at the Earth with the radio telescope Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). The search might enable us to find sGRBs located closer to us and make it easier to search for the related GW signals. In this talk, I will present the status of the search and discuss the feasibility of month-long transient searches in general with CHIME.

Bio:
I am a second-year PhD student at the University of Tokyo, Japan and a one-year visiting student at the University of British Columbia, Canada.  I mainly work on two things: one is towards a blind search for short gamma-ray burst (sGRB) afterglows with the radio telescope Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in order to give some constraints on the origin of sGRBs.  The other is theoretical estimates of the number of black hole – luminous companion binaries detectable with the astrometric satellite Gaia.

Host: Stephanie O’Neil