Title: Models for Fast Radio Bursts and Future Astrophysical Tests

Speaker: Zigao Dai (Nanjing University)

Time: 3 PM, May 18th (Thursday)   

Abstract:

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration flashes of coherent GHz radio emission of unknown physical origin. Most of them arise from high Galactic latitudes, but their inferred dispersion measures are much larger than expected for propagation through the cold plasma of our Galaxy and its halo, strongly suggesting that they are at cosmological distances. FRBs seem to fall into two classes: non-repeating and repeating. Only one repeating case discovered so far is FRB 121102. In my talk, I will review the recent progress of FRB studies and discuss some models for FRB's physical origin and future astrophysical tests in detail.