Wednesday Colloquium

"The gamma-ray emission from the pulsar magnetosphere: theoretical predictions and comparison with the Fermi LAT young pulsar population"

Marco Pierbattista (NCAC, Toruń)Show abstract

The exceptional results obtained in the last years from the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) in detecting pulsars have produced a considerable increase of the high-energy pulsar population. The possibility to study the γ-ray pulsars with high statistics represents a unique opportunity to understand pulsar physics. Moreover it offers the possibility to constrain many emission models through different techniques, from the comparison of the collective properties of a simulated population to the structure and morphology analysis of each γ-ray pulsar light-curve. In this seminar I will first give a qualitative description of the pulsar magnetosphere physics and of the some γ-ray emission and geometrical models used so fat to explain high-energy emission from pulsars. In the second part of the seminar, the young and middle aged pulsar population observed by the LAT in the last 4 years will be described. In the third and last part of the talk I will show how to compare model predictions and observations by synthesising a pulsar population and by fitting the observed γ-ray and radio light curves with modelled emission profiles.

"Simulations of microwave skies for blind galaxy cluster and point source surveys"

Bartosz Lew (Centre for Astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń)Show abstract

Galaxy clusters are known to be the most massive systems bounded gravitationally and have proved to be useful probes of cosmology. The currently ongoing and the near-future radio observations will detect hundreds new galaxy clusters and provide new insights into calibration of matter power spectra, dynamics of the large scale structure formation and thermodynamics of intra-cluster medium. I will discuss the current work towards enabling a blind radio survey to be pursued in the Polish climate and discuss perspectives for discovering new galaxy clusters with aid of the existing and planned instruments.

"Historyk w poszukiwaniu dokumentów. Moje 60 lat w archiwach Europy (in Polish)"

Jerzy Wojciech Borejsza (Instytut Historii PAN, Warszawa)

"Astrophysics in Kazakhstan: past, present and future"

Chingis Omarov (Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute, Almaty, Kazakhstan)Show abstract

Astronomical observations in Kazakhstan are carried out for over 60 years. The advantage of the geographical location makes it possible to set and  conduct programs of stationary ground-based observations, that from the most observatories of other countries are difficult or impossible. Today astrophysical research in Kazakhstan is being developed in theeoretical and observational aspects. In particular, computational astrophysics and stellar dynamics is gaining more momentum due to international collaboration.  Meanwhile one of the main project in observational research is to build a new 3,6 ground telescope and to participate in the international space project  "World Space Observatory - Ultraviolet".