IIHE invited seminar: High-Energy Neutrino Sources in Light of Recent IceCube Results
by
Prof.Ahlers Markus(University of Copenhagen)
→
Europe/Brussels
Zoom (IIHE (ULB-VUB))
Zoom
IIHE (ULB-VUB)
Description
Abstract:
Neutrinos are unique cosmic messengers that allow to explore the most extreme environments of our Universe. In the past decade, neutrino astronomy has reached a milestone with the discovery of high-energy (TeV-PeV) cosmic neutrinos by the IceCube observatory at the South Pole. The origin of these neutrinos is unknown and subject to much speculation in astroparticle physics. Only recently, IceCube was able to find first compelling evidence of a high-energy neutrino source: the gamma-ray blazar TXS 0506+056. The sum of these observations has implications on the strength and abundance of neutrino sources and their visibility in terms of other messengers: cosmic rays, photons and gravitational waves. In my talk, I will summarize the status of high-energy neutrino astronomy and highlight potential source candidates. Particularly interesting candidates are gamma-ray bursts, that have now also been observed in coincidence with gravitational waves (GRB 170817A & GW170817). I will describe in some detail the expected neutrino production mechanism of these sources and compare this with recent measurements of the IceCube observatory.
Short bio: Prof. Ahlers's research area is centered around high-energy astroparticle physics. He is interested in the puzzling phenomena of cosmic rays, gamma rays, and neutrinos and how these observations are related in the context of multi-messenger astronomy. A central theme in Markus's research is the study of transport phenomena of cosmic rays. He is a member of the IceCube collaboration since 2007. Currently he is Assistant Professor at the Niels Bohr Institute. After finishing his studies at the University of Heidelberg he obtained his PhD from University of Hamburg (DESY). He has been a Postdoc in Oxford and Stony Brook as well as a John Bahcall Fellow for Neutrino Astronomy at UW-Madison (WIPAC)