Yale Astronomy Colloquium - Kiyo Masui

Event time: 
Thursday, November 9, 2023 - 2:30pm
Speaker: 
Kiyo Masui
Speaker Institution: 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Talk Title: 
A Synoptic View of Fast Radio Bursts with CHIME
Event description: 

For more than a decade, enigmatic extragalactic flashes called fast radio bursts (FRBs) have defied a definitive explanation for their origin. In addition, the unique properties of FRBs make them promising probes of both cosmology and the distribution of gas on intergalactic scales. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is the only radio telescope capable of instantaneously observing hundreds of square degrees with the sensitivity of a 100-meter scale aperture. As a result, its transient search instrument, CHIME/FRB, has detected thousands of FRBs, increasing the known sample by an order of magnitude. I will give an overview of CHIME/FRB’s most recent results, where observations of particular sources and statistical analyses of the FRB population are starting to reveal the nature of this mysterious phenomenon. I will then describe an effort to augment CHIME/FRB’s capabilities by adding Outrigger telescopes, which will be located across North America and will precisely localize FRB sources using very long baseline interferometry. The resulting large sample of localized FRBs will allow for detailed measurements of the large-scale distribution of baryons in the universe, providing precise constraints on feedback processes in galaxy evolution.

Location: 
Kline Tower Room 509 A & B See map New Haven, CT 06511
Open to: 
General Public