Title：Mysteries of fast radio bursts

Speaker：Dr. Dongzi Li (李冬子)  Princeton University

Time：Dec. 13, 2023  2:00 PM

Location:Middle Conference Room, 3rd Floor

Abstract：

Making use of exponential increases in computing power and memory per dollar, radio astronomers have been able to search larger areas of sky with ever higher bandwidth at high time and frequency resolution. In 2007, a mysterious millisecond-duration burst was found around the cellphone band. This kind of signal is now known as fast radio burst (FRB), energetic bursts visible at a cosmological distance. FRBs are a new probe of cosmological matter, since each burst carries information on the number of electrons it encounters before reaching the earth. In this talk, I will review the current understanding of the origin of FRBs, as well as the many remaining mysteries, including the location of the FRBs, the magneto-environment and the long-term periodicity. I will also discuss the observed properties of special pulsar systems that help us understand FRBs. In the next few years, current and upcoming instruments will detect more FRBs with orders of magnitude better spatial resolution. The result will be an explosion of opportunity for related fields, such as cosmology, dynamics of compact objects, magnetars and their surrounding medium.

CV：

Dr. Dongzi Li is a Lyman Spitzer, Jr.  Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University. She obtained her PhD from the University of Toronto in 2021 and her bachelor's from Nanjing University in 2015. She works on the theory, observation and modeling of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), pulsars, as well as using them to probe cosmic matter distribution and magnetic structures.