Title: Short Gamma-Ray Bursts and Mergers of Two Neutron Stars

Speaker: Zigao Dai (Nanjing)  

Time & place: Wednesday, 3:00pm, May 6th, lecture Hall, 3rd floor  

Abstract: Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are flashes of gamma rays occurring at the cosmological distances. They fall into two classes: short-duration (<2 seconds) hard-spectrum bursts and long-duration (>2 seconds) soft-spectrum bursts. Long GRBs result from core collapses of massive stars, and short GRBs appear to be produced in mergers of neutron star binaries or black hole-neutron star binaries. In my talk, I will review recent progress on short GRBs and discuss some implications of millisecond magnetars as central engines of short GRBs resulting from mergers of two neutron stars.   

Biog: TBC