McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

Special Astrophysics Seminar

Asymmetries in Stellar Collapse

Christopher Fryer

Los Alamos National Laboratories

When the cores of massive stars become too massive to support themselves, they implode in one of the most violent events in the universe. It has long been known from the high spatial velocities of the pulsars formed in this collapse that the explosions arising from stellar collapse (which now include supernovae, hypernovae and gamma-ray bursts) are not symmetric. But what is the extent of these asymmetries and how do they arise? Here we will discuss the current theoretical progress understanding these asymmetries, focusing on the most direct probe of such asymmetries - gravitational waves.

Thursday, February 12th 2004, 14:45
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 326