The NWU Centre for Space Research cordially invites you to attend a public lecture by Prof Markus Böttcher.
Presentation title - Cosmic Ghost Particles: Neutrinos and the new Era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy.
Astronomical objects (such as stars and galaxies) emit not only light and other forms of radiation, but also high-energy elementary particles. The most mysterious of these are called neutrinos: Almost mass-less particles with no charge that are able to penetrate huge celestial bodies (including Earth) almost unaffected, as they interact with almost nothing. Huge volumes (of the order of a cubik-kilometre) are necessary to detect them. The past decade has seen the birth of a new branch of astronomy, called multi-messenger astronomy, in which astronomical objects are observed as the sources of radiation and neutrinos (and other messengers). This talk will explain what we know about neutrinos, the instruments with which they have been detected, and the likely sources of astrophysical neutrinos, in particular, our sun and the active centres of some galaxies.
About the speaker:
Markus Boettcher obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany, in 1997, having done his Ph.D. research at the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University in Houston, TX, from 1997 - 2002, including a NASA Chandra Postdoctoral Fellowship from 1999 - 2002. He became assistant professor at Ohio University, Athens, OH, in 2002, associate professor in 2007, and full professor in 2012. In 2013, he moved to South Africa to take up the position of SARChI Chair of Astrophysics and Space Physics at north-West University, Potchefstroom. His area of expertise is theoretical high-energy astrophysics, with special emphasis on extragalactic sources, such as active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts. He is the Chair of the South African Gamma-Ray Astronomy Programme, co-ordinating the high-energy astrophysics research activities and funding needs of about 100 members at 6 institutions in South Africa and Namibia.
For more information, kindly contact Ashleigh Pieterse
Tel: 018 299 2711.