Gravitational Physics
Multimessenger astronomy: the X-ray case
Speaker: Phil Evans (University of Leicester)
Date: Friday 24 February 2017
Time: 11.15
Venue: Chart Room (N/3.23)
Driven by biological constraints, astronomy has traditionally been carried out by means of studying photons. Over recent years, however, technology has enabled the detection of other messengers from space, such as cosmic rays and more recently, neutrinos and gravitational waves. In particular, the last 18 months have seen the first real-time announcements of gravitational waves by advanced LIGO, and of astrophysical neutrinos (of very high energies) by IceCube. Combining the use of these new technologies with the well-established field of electromagetic astronomy is vital in order to maximise the scientific return of such studies. In this talk I will introduce the field of "multi-messenger" astronomy, and then discuss both techniques and results which attempt to combine the old and new fields. I will focus particularly on the use of X-rays as the EM messenger, and my experience of this using the Swift satellite.