Powered by Indico
v3.2.3
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a recent phenomenon that open up new windows to study the universe due to their direct measure of ionized electrons and coherent radiation interference patterns. I describe some recent results, including constraints on compact dark matter, and upcoming scientific opportunities with the new era of real-time VLBI localization in BURSTT, CHIME and beyond.
Ue-Li Pen (PhD Princeton University, 1995) is the Director of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taiwan and is jointly appointed with the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, where he has been a professor since 1998. His research projects include the non-linear dynamics of the cosmic neutrino background, 21cm intensity mapping, pulsar VLBI scintillometry, and the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). His pioneering work on 21 cm intensity mapping opens a new window for the precision study of dark energy and neutrinos. His use of natural plasma in our galaxy as a giant telescope spawned the field of scintillometry, enabling new glimpses into enigmatic pulsars and the unsolved fast radio bursts. Pen is a senior fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. In 2018, he became just the second researcher at a Canadian institution to receive a Simons Investigator Award. He was part of the CHIME research team that received a Governor General’s Innovation Award in 2020, the Lancelot Berkeley Prize in 2021, and the Brockhouse Canada Prize in 2022. He was also a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration to win the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.