2004 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS - Indian Academy of Sciences

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CHAPTER 2 there are not many plausible astronomical sources within such a small volume. Adding to the woe, if they are protons then they will point to the source since magnetic deflection is not significant! An artist’s impression of the AUGER observatories origin, for if they are, they should show an anisotropy that correlates with the galactic plane (above 10 18 eV, the galactic magnetic field is not important even for iron nuclei). No such anisotropy is found. If they are of extragalactic origin then there are several exotic possibilities for accelerating them to such high energies. Various suggestions include: relic particles from the early Universe, cosmological shocks, spinning black holes with strong magnetic fields, g amma ray bursts, etc. Even if one or more of these mechanisms could produce cosmic rays with such high energy, there is a serious problem regardless of their composition. The serious obstacle is the large optical depth of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. For example, a collision of 10 20 eV proton with the 10 –3 eV CMBR photon produces several hundred MeV in the centre-of-mass system. The cross section for pion production is large resulting in a rapid decrease in energy of the proton. Therefore, a 10 20 eV proton must be of fairly “local” origin, i.e., less than 100 Mpc away. This corresponds to a redshift of 0.025, and So the key questions are: What is the composition of the UHECR ?, How do they acquire their energies?, and What is their distribution? The basic experimental difficulty as, indeed, in the interpretation of the data has been poor statistics. The cosmic ray flux above 5 × 10 19 eV is 0.3/km 2 /sr/ yr! It took AGASA – a very large array – 5 years to collect 20 events! Faced with this difficulty several major experimental facilities are now under construction, such as the Pierre AUGER observatories. This will consist of two detectors one in each hemisphere, with acceptance 7000 km 2 -sr. Such an experiment will collect ~ 450 events per year above 5 × 10 19 eV. Even more exotic ideas have been proposed such as the detection of fluorescence light produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays from a satellite! So one can confidently anticipate major advances in our understanding of the nature and origin of ultra high energy cosmic rays. It is fortuitous that in parallel great technical advances are taking place in detecting Ultra High Energy Gamma Rays (UHEGR). This branch of astronomy is rapidly coming of age. And who knows! Like in the case of low energy cosmic rays, the true explanation of UHECR and UHEGR may require not only new physics, but also as yet undiscovered astronomical objects. It is worth reminding ourselves that the extraordinary paper by Baade and Zwicky (1934) in which they invented supernovae and neutron stars, was an attempt to explain the origin of the recently discovered cosmic rays! Gravitational Waves One of the greatest achievements of the 19 th century was the discovery by Maxwell of the equations governing the electric and magnetic 23
THE PRESENT REVOLUTION IN ASTRONOMY fields, which led to the prediction of electromagnetic waves. And one of the greatest achievements of the last century was the discovery by Einstein of the equation governing the gravitational field. One of the predictions of this theory is that there must be gravitational waves. Since this prediction was based on a linearized version of Einstein’s field equations (unlike in Maxwell’s case where the prediction could be made from the full theory), the existence of gravitational waves was a matter of debate for nearly six decades. The first evidence, although indirect, came from the first double neutron star binary to be discovered. If the prediction of gravitational radiation was true then the orbit of this close binary system would shrink in a precise manner. This prediction was verified within a few years after the discovery of this extraordinary system. But it would be more satisfying if the gravitational waves were directly detected. With this in mind several laser interferometers have been designed and built, and these are on the verge of becoming operational. Although gravitational waves will be emitted under many circumstances, these experiments (LIGO, VIRGO, GEO, etc.) have the sensitivity to mainly detect the burst of gravitational waves from a system of two neutron stars which have spiraled in over hundreds of millions of years and finally coalesce. But there are other sources of gravitational waves such as core-collapse supernovae, collapse leading to the formation of supermassive black holes (such as those found at the centres of many galaxies), compact stars orbiting a supermassive black hole and the coalescence of two black holes. The importance of detecting gravitational radiation stems from the fact that it offers tests of General Relativity involving no physics other than spacetime itself. As was mentioned earlier, one of the new paradigms of astronomy is that most galaxies have massive black holes at their centre. A topic of great contemporary interest is to understand the formation of such supermassive black holes. According to one scenario, massive black holes inevitably form in the early history of galaxies. When galaxies merge – the deep images from the Hubble space telescope tell us that this must have been a common phenomenon in the past – the central black holes will spiral in towards each other and eventually coalesce. At that moment, there will be an intense burst of gravitational waves in which ~ 10% of the rest mass will be radiated away. The frequency range in which this energy will be concentrated will be around a millihertz. Unfortunately, this is too low a frequency for ground-based detectors such as LIGO or VIRGO. Below ~ 100 Hz ground based detectors have poor sensitivity due to seismic noise. And so space-based detectors are needed. The exciting thing is that the European Space Agency, in collaboration with NASA, is currently designing a Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). This will consist of 3 spacecrafts placed in a solar orbit at 1 A.U., trailing the earth by 20 degrees. The spacecrafts will be located at the corners of an equilateral triangle with sides of 5 million kilometers! Two arms of the triangle will comprise a Michelson interferometer with vertices at the corners. The third arm will allow another interferometric variable to be measured. The interferometers will use the same 1 micron light as the terrestrial detectors that are nearly operational, but will need only a single pass to gain the desired sensitivity. The end points of the interferometers will be referenced to proof masses free-floating and shielded by the spacecrfts. The good news is that LISA is scheduled to be launched in 2011. LISA will have unprecedented 24
Page 1 and 2: ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS A Decadal
Page 3 and 4: This publication of the Academy on
Page 5 and 6: Preface The Indian Academy of Scien
Page 7 and 8: The Academy Committee for Astronomy
Page 9 and 10: h e P a n e l s Theoretical Astroph
Page 11 and 12: C H A P T E R 1 Executive Summary
Page 13 and 14: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The recommendatio
Page 15 and 16: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY feasibility study
Page 17 and 18: C H A P T E R 2 The Present Revolut
Page 19 and 20: THE PRESENT REVOLUTION IN ASTRONOMY
Page 33: THE PRESENT REVOLUTION IN ASTRONOMY
Page 37 and 38: A large eruptive prominence in HeII
Page 39 and 40: SOLAR PHYSICS • Detailed study of
Page 41 and 42: SOLAR PHYSICS Nainital Observatory
Page 43 and 44: SOLAR PHYSICS Some Possible New Ini
Page 45 and 46: SOLAR PHYSICS Telescope and the Hel
Page 47 and 48: C H A P T E R 4 Optical, Infrared &
Page 49 and 50: OPTICAL, INFRARED & ULTRAVIOLET AST
Page 69 and 70: One of the 30 antennas of the GMRT
Page 71 and 72: RADIO ASTRONOMY India’s location
Page 73 and 74: RADIO ASTRONOMY The first telescope
Page 75 and 76: RADIO ASTRONOMY Central Electronic
Page 77 and 78: RADIO ASTRONOMY • Resolution of t
Page 79 and 80: RADIO ASTRONOMY Some recommendation
Page 81 and 82: C H A P T E R 6 High Energy Astrono
Page 83 and 84: HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY 100 cm 2 area
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY Areas of Rese
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY remnant — E
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY detectors, an
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY Gamma Ray Ast
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY A gamma ray b
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY Cosmic Rays T
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY from Hyderaba
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY • Solar con
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY nuclear compo
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HIGH ENERGY ASTRONOMY New initiativ
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C H A P T E R Theoretical Astrophys
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THEORETICAL ASTROPHYSICS • The di
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THEORETICAL ASTROPHYSICS There has
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THEORETICAL ASTROPHYSICS 5. Equatio
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C H A P T E R Gravitation and Parti
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GRAVITATION AND PARTICLE ASTROPHYSI
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C H A P T E R Recommendations 9
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RECOMMENDATIONS different aspects s
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RECOMMENDATIONS was installed there
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RECOMMENDATIONS Keeping in mind the
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RECOMMENDATIONS The 1 m telescope a
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RECOMMENDATIONS as the technology t
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RECOMMENDATIONS The committee appre
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RECOMMENDATIONS • All Sky Monitor
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RECOMMENDATIONS using our facilitie
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RECOMMENDATIONS • The committee s
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List of addresses Radio Observatori
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S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic
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Indian Academy of Sciences C. V. Ra
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2004 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS - Indian Academy of Sciences

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