Conveners
GRBs, FRBs & other Transients
- Monica Barnard (Centre for Space Research, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa)
We will take a journey together beyond our galaxy to learn about Fast Radio Bursts, our attempts to discover thousands of them, the physics that drives them and how they teach us about the universe on local and large scales.
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond radio transients of extragalactic origin that have emerged as valuable tools for both astrophysics and cosmology. In this talk, I present recent advances on two complementary fronts: the use of machine learning techniques to classify FRB populations and the application of localized FRBs as model-independent probes of the cosmic expansion. These results...
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), the most luminous explosions in the cosmos, are promising tools for cosmology due to their potential as standardizable candles. Among the empirical correlations proposed for this purpose, the Yonetoku relation, which connects the intrinsic peak energy ($E_{i, p})$ to isotropic peak luminosity ($L_{iso}$), provides a means to probe distances beyond the range of Type Ia...
Magnetar giant flares (MGFs) and short $\gamma-$ray bursts (SGRBs) are short $\gamma-$ray transients (SGRTs) with overlapping temporal and spectral characteristics, making them challenging to distinguish, especially when their redshift is unknown. In this study, we apply supervised machine learning to classify MGFs and SGRBs in an SGRT sample of unknown redshift. Temporal parameters (including...
Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) afterglows arise from the interaction of relativistic ejecta with the circumburst medium and are observed across the electromagnetic spectrum. Polarisation is expected during the early and late phases of the afterglow depending on the presence of reverse shocks and the viewing geometry of the jet. Polarimetric observations of GRB afterglows serve as a unique diagnostic...
The radiation mechanisms powering Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and their physical processes remain one of the unresolved questions in high-energy astrophysics. Spectro-polarimetric observations of exceptionally bright GRBs provide a powerful diagnostic tool to address these challenges. GRB 230307A, the second-brightest long-duration GRB ever detected, exhibits a rare association with a Kilonova,...
There is still much debate around the inner workings of the GRB prompt emission phase with many questions still left unanswered. Polarization signatures offer a promising new avenue to discriminate between the various GRB prompt emission models. The aim of the study is to estimate energy and time resolved polarization signatures resulting from inverse Compton (IC) scattering for two specific...
