Physics Colloquium, May 26, 2009
The Birth of Neutron Stars & the Central Engine of Gamma-Ray Bursts Todd A. Thompson

Department of Astronomy, OSU

I will discuss the first 100 seconds in the life of neutron stars birthed during the collapse and supernova explosion of massive stars. In this cooling epoch, a wind driven by neutrino heating emerges from the cooling, "proto-" neutron star and into the overlying massive stellar progenitor. I will show that if the neutron star has a strong large-scale surface magnetic field and a millisecond rotation period (a "millisecond magnetar"), then the properties of the outflow (kinetic luminosity, Lorentz factor) are precisely in the range needed to explain long-duration cosmological gamma-ray bursts: flashes of high-energy photons seen from across the universe with 10-100 second duration.

Dr. Thompson's Web Site

4:00 p.m., Physics Research Building (PRB), Room 1080

Reception at 3:45 p.m., Atrium, PRB