Week of Events
Sunday, April 5, 2026
No events on this day.
Monday, April 6, 2026
No events on this day.
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
No events on this day.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
No events on this day.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
No events on this day.
Friday, April 10, 2026
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April 10, 2026 -CGCA Seminar – Reshma Anna Thomas
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April 10, 2026 -Physics Colloquium – Sarah Villanova Borges
CGCA Seminar – Reshma Anna Thomas
Low-Frequency Radio Transients
Reshma Anna Thomas
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of Amsterdam
The low-frequency radio sky (<300 MHz) remains comparatively underexplored for fast and slow transients (~ microseconds to minutes), primarily due to strong propagation effects as well as instrumental challenges. However, this regime provides unique leverage on plasma environments and emission physics that are inaccessible at GHz frequencies. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic coherent transients with millisecond durations, often exhibiting sub-millisecond temporal structure. I will present detections of two FRBs at 150 MHz using beamformed searches with LOFAR, which place some of the most stringent constraints to date on free–free absorption in their local environments. In parallel, a new class of Galactic sources, long-period transients (LPTs), has recently emerged, characterized by emission on second-to-minute durations and periodicities spanning minutes to hours.
Physics Colloquium – Sarah Villanova Borges
Constraining Common Envelope Evolution Simulations with Observations
Sarah Villanova Borges, PhD Candidate
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Common Envelope Evolution (CEE) remains one of the biggest unresolved problems in binary stellar evolution, despite being the primary pathway for the formation of close binary systems. One of the main challenges in understanding CEE is its intrinsically multiscale and multiphysics nature, which makes it difficult to model with analytical or 1D models. 3D hydrodynamical simulations have therefore become essential tools for studying this phase. However, validating these simulations requires observational constraints, which are scarce. This lack of direct observations is another major obstacle in modeling CEE. One exception is luminous red novae, which is believed to correspond to CEE events that culminate in stellar mergers.
Saturday, April 11, 2026
No events on this day.