I need to do a much better job of updating this site. I think I’m going to schedule a regular update every Friday, either right before or right after the weekly Astro group research meeting.

A lot has been going on lately, which has push research aside for the most part. Still, I am moving along. I’ve been reading a lot lately, most recently about beaming in GRBs. I don’t yet understand how they can determine the jet opening angles based on the energy observed and the break shape in the power-law decay.

Because Sandy asked (a while ago):
The Lorentz factor is a term defined in special relativity where gamma = 1 / sqrt ( 1 – B^2), where B = velocity / speed of light. In the ultra-relativistic outflows of GRB jets, not only is the energy output very high, the Lorentz factor is also very high. I don’t yet have the training to understand how such high Lorentz factors will affect the physics of these jets, but I think I can assume that applying Newtonian physics is out of the question. From what I gather, collimated relativistic outflows are still a mystery to most scientists as well. Understanding the physics of these ultra-relativistic jets can reveal information about the sources of the bursts and the shocks they produce.

It’s still surprising to me to realize just how young this field is. Because it’s all new to me, I take for granted that what I’m reading now may not have been known just a few years ago. I think it will be even more surprising to me when something that we think we know now is proven to be wrong later on.

My goal for the next two and a half weeks is to prepare for my Florida Academy of Sciences talk. I gave a very abridged GRB talk to the Society of Physics Students / Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SPS/SEDS) group last week, which prompted me to admit to myself that my presentation needs a major upgrade. I also got to thinking that I’d really enjoy talking to younger groups (middle and high school) about the wonders of science and astronomy, but that’s off the point.