Pulsars are some of physics and astrophysics' most exotic
objects, and they have already earned two Nobel Prizes. We
currently know of about 2500 of them in our Galaxy, but a small
subset, the millisecond pulsars (MSPs), are truly remarkable.
These...
Advanced LIGO discovered cosmic gravitational waves and
surprised us with giant binary black-hole systems, just in time for
the 100th anniversary of Einstein's prediction. Gravitational waves
became the latest window on the Universe from violent...
Exo-planets are common, and they span a large range of
compositions.The origins of this compositional diversity are
largely unconstrained. Among planets that are Earth-like, a second
question is how often such planets form hospitable to life.
A...
I will summarize the history of IGM temperature measurements
from the Lyman-alpha forest as well as the theory for the IGM
temperature after reionization. I will show that the simplest
theory for thermal evolution, which has little parametric...
Measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation have
taught us a great deal about the origins and content of the
universe, but there is still more information to be extracted,
teaching us about the energetic moments in the early
universe...
ABSTRACT ADDED - Many high-energy astrophysical sources —
pulsars, PWN, magnetars, GRBs, and AGN (including blazar) jets —
produce bright bursts of gamma-ray emission, often featuring rapid
variability and nonthermal spectra. This calls for a...
The heaviest elements in the periodic table are synthesized
through the r-process, but the astrophysical site for r-process
nucleosynthesis is still unknown. The major current candidates are
ordinary core-collapse supernovae and neutron star merger...
Recent observations by the Kepler space telescope have led to
the discovery of more than 4000 exoplanet candidates consisting of
many systems with Earth- to Neptune-sized objects that reside well
inside the orbit of Mercury, around their respective...
