Cafe-Club, Antonio DE UGARTE POSTIGO (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur): “Stellar and galactic evolution studied with gamma-ray bursts”.

Antonio DE UGARTE POSTIGO (Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur): “Stellar and galactic evolution studied with gamma-ray bursts“.

You can find the schedule of upcoming café-clubs and the video of old ones at http://wiki.lam.fr/geco/CafeClub

Take care,
Carlo, Meriam, Mathilde

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ABSTRACT

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are some of the most violent and luminous astronomical phenomena that we can witnessed in the Universe. They are produced either by the collapse of very massive stars or by the merger of compact objects. Their observation teaches us about the extreme physics involved in the final stages of stellar evolution. These explosions require the prior existence of intense star formation and the correct environment to build up their progenitors. When exploding, they are important contributors to the interstellar environment enrichment. Due to their extreme luminosity, they can be also used as probes to study their host galaxies in absorption through spectroscopy, up to very large redshifts. Once they fade out, they pinpoint the location of distant galaxies that can be then observed also in emission.

In this talk I will review the observational techniques that we use for studying GRBs and present some of the highlights in which I have participated lately. These include observations of the brightest GRB of all time, recent Kilonova detections, and host galaxy studies. I will also go over the instrumentation that we are using for these observations and what is being planned and built for future observations.