Monthly Meeting

The presentation is about high-energy astrophysical phenomena associated with non-thermal astrophysical plasmas. It is within these plasmas that particles are accelerated to the highest energy levels in the universe. These particles are detected at Earth as cosmic rays and are responsible for producing non-thermal radiation across a broad spectrum from radio waves to gamma rays that provide clues to their origin. These physical mechanisms are at the core of the most violent phenomena in the universe and include supernovae, kilonovae, pulsars, gamma-ray bursts and more. The theoretical connections of these phenomena to what we detect on Earth will be explored.

Dr. Damiano Caprioli

The speaker is Dr. Damiano Caprioli, a theoretical astrophysicist and Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the E. Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago. His primary research interest is cosmic ray physics and high-energy astrophysical phenomena, non-thermal astrophysical plasmas in particular. He employs analytical and numerical simulations to evaluate processes by which particles are accelerated to the highest energies in the universe. His interest includes the role that such particles and their associated magnetic fields have in the evolution of galaxies, in laboratory plasma experiments, and in spacecraft observations of the heliosphere.

Dr. Caprioli received his PhD in 2009 from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Italy. He was a post-doc at INAF-Arcetri (Florence) in Italy and then at Princeton University through 2016, when he joined the University of Chicago.  He received the Rita Levi Montalcini Fellowship and the 2015 Shakti P. Duggal Award from IUPAP.

This event is open to the public and free of charge.