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SUMMARY: Welcome to the era of fast radio burst “cosmology”! - Matt Mc
 Quinn (Washington)
DTSTART:20201029T160000Z
DTEND:20201029T170000Z
UID:TALK151903@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Annelies Mortier
DESCRIPTION:Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are frequent\, bright millisecond bur
 sts of radio emission that have fortunately (unfortunately) turned out to 
 not be from microwave ovens (alien light sails)\, but rather to be some ex
 tragalactic phenomenon likely associated with magnetars   Radio astronomer
 s are beginning to localize these bursts to specific galaxies\, opening up
  new extragalactic observables — the bursts' dispersion\, scattering\, a
 nd Faraday rotation.  Dispersion in particular yields the intervening colu
 mn of electrons\, providing a unique tool to probe the 95% of the baryons 
 that sit outside of galaxies (the vast majority of which are invisible usi
 ng other observational methods).  I will present the first applications of
  FRB diffuse baryon science\, featuring results from the commensal real-ti
 me ASKAP fast-transients (CRAFT) survey.  Even with just a handful of well
 -localized bursts\, we are able to make interesting inferences about circu
 mgalactic gas and the "missing baryons”.  I may end with an idea for par
 t-in-a-thousand-level precision cosmology with FRBs that may only be a lit
 tle crazy.\n\n
LOCATION:ONLINE - Details will be sent by email
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