Events
IPAC organizes and hosts a number of meetings and conferences.
IPAC hosts seminars every Wednesday from 12-1pm in IPAC's Large Conference Room (102) except where noted. Directions can be found on the visitor information page. Pizza and soda are available for purchase at a modest fee. Some weeks, the Time Domain Forum talk (which is not a lunch talk) is held on Thursday afternoons at 2:30 pm.
To receive seminar notification emails, you may sign up here. If you are interested in presenting a talk or seminar, please contact Peter Capak (Extragalactic), or Stephen Kane (Galactic/Solar System/Exoplanets). To present at the Time Domain Forum, contact Luisa Rebull.
Here is a partial list of astronomy-related talks in Pasadena:
- Caltech Astronomy Tea Talk (Mondays, 4pm)
- Caltech DPS Division Seminar (Mondays, 4pm)
- IR/sub-mm/mm Sack lunch series (Tuesdays, 12:15pm)
- Carnegie Colloquia series (Tuesdays, 4pm)
- Caltech Astronomy Colloquia (Wednesdays, 4pm)
- Caltech Physics Research Conference (Thursdays, 4pm)
- Carnegie Lunch Talk Series (Fridays, 12:15pm)
Special Note: For more astronomy related talks around Pasadena, check the following list maintained by IPAC scientist Solange Ramirez.
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) are thought to be magnetars: neutron stars powered by extreme magnetic fields (B>10^14 G). These rare objects are characterized by repeated and sometimes spectacular bursts. The existence of magnetars has been theoretically hypothesized in 1992, but only confirmed in 1998 when their timing properties were inferred by the RXTE telescope, leading to a direct measurement of their dipole magnetic field. In this talk, I will focus on the SGR class of magnetars. I will summarize the spectral properties of their high energy bursting and persistent emission and very briefly discuss the theory behind them. I will give some of the most interesting results of the FERMI/gamma-ray burst monitor (GBM) magnetar group and conclude with some suggestions for future research.
