NOTE: This meeting will be in person at FURMAN UNIVERSITY, not at the Science Center. Location and Map are listed below:

Abstract: 

The stellar graveyard in the Milky Way Galaxy includes the remains of massive stellar explosions, often giving birth to a highly magnetized, rapidly rotating compact stellar core, a pulsar. Energetic pulsars may form a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) through the conversion of rotational energy into a strongly magnetized, relativistic particle outflow. PWNe make up most of the very high energy (VHE, E > 100GeV) Galactic source population detected by Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs). This VHE emission is generated from the interaction of the most energetic, massive particles known, cosmic rays (CRs). Therefore, PWNe may be responsible for producing Galactic CRs with energy up to ~ 1PeV. The Fermi-LAT is the most sensitive instrument observing the lower-energy (E < 100GeV) gamma-ray sky, where many PWNe are expected to peak. Fermi-LAT data can provide important constraints on the acceleration mechanisms and thus the ability to contribute to the Galactic CR flux. The results of a systematic search to identify PWNe using the Fermi-LAT is presented in addition to a population study exploring evolutionary trends of varying characteristics to guide future PWN surveys.

Speaker:  

Dr Jordan L Eagle

Jordan Eagle is a recent PhD graduate from Clemson University, who also completed a predoctoral fellowship in her final three years of her degree at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Eagle's primary interests focus on high energy astrophysics and the origins of the most massive, energetic particles called cosmic rays. Using data from X- and Gamma-ray space telescopes including Chandra, XMM-Newton, and the Fermi-Large Area Telescope, Eagle studies the descendants of massive supernova explosions such as pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants to determine their capability to generate cosmic rays. Eagle continues these research efforts as a NASA postdoctoral program fellow at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

 

LOCATION:

We will meet in a  classroom in Plyler Hall 222 in the Townes Science Center.  Visitors can park in the South Chapel Lot, which is the parking lot between the Daniel Chapel and the football stadium (park closer to the chapel side – see attached map, follow the red arrow).  The building is across the Mall from the parking lot.  The classroom is on the second floor; there is stair and elevator access near the classroom.