Past Events

  • 2017 Apr 26

    ITC Pizza Lunch - John Kovac (Harvard)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

    "The search for primordial gravitational waves, part 2 -- experimental perspective"

    Abstract: The BICEP/Keck Array cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarization experiments located at the South Pole are a series of small-aperture refracting telescopes designed to probe the degree-scale B-mode signature of primordial gravitational waves.  These highly-targeted experiments have produced the world's deepest maps of CMB polarization, leading to the most stringent constraints on the tensor-to-scalar ratio to date: r < 0.09 from B-modes alone, and r < 0.07 in...

    Read more about ITC Pizza Lunch - John Kovac (Harvard)
  • 2017 Apr 20

    ITC Luncheon April 20, 2017

    12:30pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

     

    * Edo Berger (CfA): "Millisecond Magnetar Birth Connects FRB 121102 to Superluminous Supernovae"
     
    * Evan Scannapieco (Arizona): "The Origin of Cold Gas in Galaxy Outflows"
     
    * Mikhail Medvedev (University of Kansas): "Magnetic Monopoles in the Large Scale Structure. New Abundance Constraints and the Possible Origin of Magnetic Fields in Galaxy Clusters"
     
    * Savvas M. Koushiappas (Brown U. & ITC): "Dwarf Galaxies Disfavor Black Holes as Dark Matter"

     

  • 2017 Apr 20

    ITC Colloquium - Mikhail Medvedev (KU)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Pratt

    Cosmology of flavor-mixed dark matter

    Abstract: The standard Lambda-CDM cosmological model is successful at describing the distribution of matter at large scales but faces problems at galactic scales. Pundits blame for this the poorly understood or modeled baryonic physics, e.g., star formation, feedback via stellar wind, supernova outflows and black hole jets, the influence of magnetic fields and cosmic rays, etc. Whereas the role of baryons is still debated, alternative models of dark matter (DM) have actively been explored. A natural possibility is that DM particles are flavor-...

    Read more about ITC Colloquium - Mikhail Medvedev (KU)
  • 2017 Apr 19

    ITC Pizza Lunch Sarah Shandera (Penn State)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

    "The Search for Primordial Gravitational Waves"

    Abstract: Observations of the cosmic microwave background so far reveal no evidence of gravitational waves in the very early universe. I will discuss what a detection or an improved upper limit could tell us about cosmology, particle physics, and gravity, and specifically what we hope to learn from the next generation of ground-based CMB polarization instruments.

  • 2017 Apr 13

    ITC Luncheon April 13, 2017

    12:30pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

    * Luke Kelley (ITC): "Pulsar timing constraints on supermassive black hole binary candidates"

    * Robert Simcoe (MIT): "Possible Evidence for a Hard Ionizing Spectrum in a z=6.1 Galaxy"

    * Alexie Leauthaud (UCSC): "Lensing is Low: Cosmology, Galaxy Formation, or New Physics?"

    * Paul Chesler (BHI): "Constraining Modified Newtonian Dynamics with Gravitational Waves"

  • 2017 Apr 13

    ITC Colloquium - Eugene Churazov (MPI)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Pratt

    "X-ray tomography of molecular clouds"

     
    Abstract:  While molecular clouds are among the coldest objects in the Milky Way, an illumination by flares from Sgr A* turns them into powerful X-ray sources. By studying X-ray emission from molecular clouds we learn about the past activity of our Galactic Center over the last few hundred years. The same data provide unique probes of the inner structure of molecular clouds, such as, the density probability distribution function or line of sight positions, among others. We discuss constraints on clouds properties that are...
    Read more about ITC Colloquium - Eugene Churazov (MPI)
  • 2017 Apr 12

    ITC Pizza Lunch Carl Rodriguez (MIT)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

    "Identifying Binary Black Holes formed in Dense Stellar Environments"

    Abstract: The recent detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of compact object astrophysics. But to fully utilize this new window into the universe, we must compare these observations to detailed models of binary black hole formation throughout cosmic time. In this talk, I will review our current understanding of cluster dynamics, describing how binary black holes can be formed through gravitational interactions in dense stellar...

    Read more about ITC Pizza Lunch Carl Rodriguez (MIT)
  • 2017 Apr 06

    ITC Luncheon April 6, 2017

    12:30pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

     

    * Dong Lai (Cornell): “Missing Kepler Multi’s: How External Companion Influences Multi-Planet Systems”

    * Natalie Batalha (NASA Ames Research Center): "Transiting Exoplanets with JWST: Community Efforts for Early Release Science"

    * Vikram Ravi (Caltech): "An FRB Localization Machine"

    * Peter Blanchard (CfA): "A Tidal Disruption Event in a Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy"

  • 2017 Apr 06

    ITC Colloquium - Dong Lai (Cornell)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Pratt

     

    "Circumbinary Accretion: From Supermassive Binary Black Holes to Circumbinary Planets"
     
    Circumbinary disks have been observed in a number of young stellar systems, and are the birth place for circumbinary planets found by the Kepler misssion. They are also expected to exist around supermassive black hole binaries as a consequence of accretion from the interstellar medium following galaxy mergers. I will discuss recent works on numerical modeling of circumbinary accretion, focusing short-...
    Read more about ITC Colloquium - Dong Lai (Cornell)
  • 2017 Apr 05

    ITC Pizza Lunch Lisa Barsotti (MIT)

    11:00am to 12:00pm

    Location: 

    Phillips

     

    Beyond Advanced LIGO: the future of ground based observations
     
    Abstract: Advanced LIGO started the era of gravitational wave astronomy during its first observing run, O1, in 2015. Since then, the international gravitational wave community has been making plans to define the future of ground based gravitational wave observations. In this talk I will discuss current ideas for extending the astrophysical reach of ground based gravitational wave detectors up to a factor 10-20 beyond Advanced LIGO.

     

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