GW170817 and multimessenger astronomy: the research in Padua

Wednesday 25 Oct 2017, 15:00 → 19:55 Europe/Rome

Aula B (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia - DFA)

1 Introduction

Speaker: Livia Conti (PD)

2 Merging reveals the innards of neutronstars

Neutrons stars are the endpoint of the evolution of massive stars. The equation of state (EoS) of matter at neutron star nuclear density (1e14-1e15 g/cm^3) is still poorly known and so is the maximum mass of a stable neutron star. GW170817/SSS17a offers an unprecedented opportunity to place tight constraints on neutron star matter EoS and foster our understanding of these fascinating objects.

Speaker: Prof. Roberto Turolla (Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Padova)

Slides padova-GW.pptx

3 The dawn of gravitational wave astronomy

On September 14, 2015, the direct observation of a system of coalescing black holes thorough their gravitational waves emission marked the beginning of a new era for astronomy. Just two years later, observation of the gravitational wave signal by a pair of coalescing neutron stars enabled an unprecedented observational campaign of the same system throughout the whole electromagnetic spectrum. We now have a powerful, new complementary channel to observe our universe, enabling us to greatly enrich our picture of the Cosmo. I will briefly introduce gravitational waves, their observed and expected sources and the observatories we use (and will use) to detect them. I will conclude by reviewing the observations performed so far.

Speaker: Giacomo Ciani (PD)

Slides 2017-10-25_-_GW170817_seminar_at_UniPD.pdf

4 Multimessenger astronomy with GW170817

Speaker: Giovanni Andrea Prodi (Università di Trento - TIFPA)

Slides GW170817-GAP-padova-MMA.pdf

5 Observations of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Neutron Star Inspiral

On August 17 the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo made the first observation of gravitational waves signal from a binary neutron star inspiral. GW170817 is the closest and most precisely localized gravitational-wave signal so far. The seminar will report about source properties estimated and astrophysical implications of this discovery

Speaker: Dr Claudia Lazzaro (INFN Padova)

Slides Padova251017_Lazzaro2.pdf

6 GW counterparts with Fermi and Integral: the case of GRB170817A

The association of the short GRB 170817A with the GW event in the same date opens a new era in multimessenger astrophysics. I will describe the observations by Fermi and Integral, and discuss the prospects for the future.

Speaker: Dr Riccardo Rando (Univ & INFN Padova)

Slides rando_gbm_dfa_10_2017_final.pdf

7 Coffee Break

8 EM follow-up: optical, infrared, UV, X rays, radio

I will summarise the wealth of electro-magnetic follow-up observations obtained in the two weeks after the trigger of Aug 17. I will try to focus on the reference data and highlights the key information that can be derived from the current preliminary analysis.

Speaker: Dr Enrico Cappellaro (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)

Slides 2017_10-25_Padova_KN_GW_science.pdf

9 Short GRB and kilonova: did observations meet our theoretical predictions?

I will provide a theoretical background on the association of these two spectacular astrophysical events with binary neutron star mergers and discuss our understanding of the underlying physical processes before and after GW170817.

Speaker: Dr Riccardo Ciolfi (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)

Slides Ciolfi_GW170817_noMovies.pdf

10 A tale of two (relatively) massive stars

The spectacular data of GW170817 re-open the discussion about the formation channels of merging neutron stars. According to our current understanding, the progenitors of GW170817 were two relatively massive stars (~ 9 - 20 Msun) which have evolved together for a long time (few Gyr) and went through a number of evolutionary stages. The physics of these evolutionary stages is still far from being understood but the new detection can help us getting a clue about it. Some additional precious insights come from the environment where this system happened to merge: an early-type galaxy, with mostly old stellar population.

Speaker: Dr Michela Mapelli (INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova & University of Innsbruck)

Slides mapelli_neutronstars.pdf

11 What gravitational waves can tell us about Cosmology?

The recent exciting detection of GW170817 can  open up a new branch in Cosmology. I will summarize what gravitational waves can tell us about Cosmology, some of the  cosmological implications that are already in place, and what future holds.

Speaker: Nicola Bartolo (PD)

Slides GWs_Cosmology_Bartolo.pdf

12 First time of TeV emission from a blazar in close coincidence with a neutrino event observed with the MAGIC telescope

Speaker: Michele Doro (PD)

Slides doro_2017_MAGICnu.pdf

13 Prospects for multimessenger astrophysics & discussion

Speaker: Giovanni Andrea Prodi (Università di Trento - TIFPA)