We demonstrate that the existence of a Noether symmetry in extended
theories of gravity gives rise to a further gravitational radius, besides
the standard Schwarzschild one, determining the dynamics at galactic
scales. By this feature, it is possible to explain the baryonic
Tully-Fisher relation, the rotation curve of gas-rich galaxies, and the
features of fundamental plane of ellipticals...
Various observations are revealing the widespread occurrence of mildly relativistic wide-angle AGN outflows, likely launched from accretion disks around supermassive black holes, and interacting strongly with the gas of their host galaxy.
During the interaction, strong shocks are expected to form that can accelerate relativistic particles. The interactions of shock-accelerated particles...
The investigation of distant galaxy formation and evolution is a powerful tool to constrain dark matter scenarios, supporting and in some cases surpassing other astrophysical and experimental probes. The recent completion of the Hubble Frontier Field (HFF) programme combining ultra-deep Hubble Space Telescope observations and the magnification power of gravitational lensing produced by...
The IceCube Observatory is a neutrino telescope deployed at the geographic South Pole, aimed to detect and identify high energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. IceCube is also able to detect cosmic rays with the 1 km^3 neutrino telescope buried 2500 meters under the Antarctic ice and with a dedicated 1 km^2 surface array. IceCube has analyzed data over the last several years to determine,...
In this talk I will review the main observational properties of Fast Radio Bursts, a fast growing family of millisecond-duration extragalactic radio flares, whose origin is still debated. I will report on the latest news, in particular relating on their multiwavelength follow-up and on the possibility to use FRBs as cosmological probes.
Strong gravitational lensing, in which light is bent and distorted by massive objects, provides a powerful probe into the dark Universe. I will discuss strong gravitational lensing constraints on the abundance and mass of massive compact objects, as well as on the halo mass function and the free-streaming length of particle dark matter. I will conclude by describing how the next generation of...
The decay K+→π+νν, with a very precisely predicted branching ratio of less than 10^(-10), is one of the best candidates to reveal indirect effects of new physics at the highest mass scales. The NA62 experiment at CERN SPS is designed to measure the branching ratio of the K+→π+νν with a decay-in-flight technique, novel for this channel. NA62 took data in 2016, 2017 and another year run is...
LATTES, the Large Array Telescope for Tracking Energetic Sources, is being designed to be a detector sensitive to gamma rays with energies in the range from 100 GeV all the way up to 100 of TeVs, operating day and night, with a large field of view. The detector, to be installed at altitudes of about 5.000 m a.s.l. in the Andes mountains in South America, is based on a novel concept to detect...
Understanding the most energetic events in the Universe requires that we study them all the tools available to us. The means using the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to the highest energy gamma-rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. Wide-field instruments such as LIGO, IceCube, Fermi, SWIFT, and HAWC can provide prompt detection of events that can be followed up by pointed...
The first gravitational-wave detection of the merger of a neutron star binary (GW170817) corroborated many theories on the nature of these events while at the same time, displaying a number of surprises. Although long-believed to be an engine for gamma-ray bursts, the off-angle detection of gamma-rays suggests a wider jet opening angle than previously believed. Similarly, the inferred rate...
On 2017 August 17, the field of gravitational-wave (GW) astronomy made the big leagues with a dazzling discovery. After several GW detections of black hole (BH)-BH mergers with no convincing electromagnetic counterparts, advanced LIGO and Virgo scored their first direct detection of GWs from a binary neutron star (NS) merger, an event dubbed GW170817. Soon after the GW discovery, GW170817...
“The HAWC Observatory: Detecting the Highest Energy Gamma-Rays”
The High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) is a continuously operating (>95% on-time), wide field-of-view (~2 sr) observatory located at 14000’ above sea level near Puebla, Mexico. HAWC observes ~2/3 of the sky each day and had detected nearly 50 sources of which about one quarter were previously unknown. Several of these...
Recent results by space borne experiments took cosmic ray data to a precision level. These new results are now able to challenge the conventional scenarios for cosmic ray production and acceleration in the Milky Way, also leaving the room for new, exotic sources.
In this talk we will give an overview of the latest results of the cosmic ray fluxes, and some possible interpretations will be...
We present updated results on the joint analysis of the arrival direction distribution of Galactic cosmic rays by the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory (located at 19$^\circ$ N) and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (located at 90$^\circ$ S). We describe the methods used to combine the IceCube and HAWC data, including an improved reconstruction method that can recover the...
