Topic: fast radio bursts

Zack Gelles examines how black-hole rotation twists magnetic fields near light cylinders, where plasma accelerates into inflows and outflows. Semi-analytic models and simulations connect this structure to polarization changes detectable with radio interferometry, offering constraints on black-hole spin and relativistic jets. Kritti Sharma presents fast radio bursts as probes of cosmic baryons. Dispersion measures and secure host redshifts constrain gas in galaxy groups and clusters, while correlations with large-scale structure and other tracers map matter along burst sight-lines. The talk con

Fast radio bursts display diverse behaviours, including repetition, and their origins remain under investigation. This seminar considers evidence connecting some bursts to pulsars and strongly magnetized neutron stars, particularly magnetars, while reviewing the range of proposed explanations.