相关论文: Challenges of Relativistic Astrophysics
What are the important unanswered questions in cosmology? The choice as to which are the most important is somewhat personal. In the view of the author, the ten topics chosen here for discussion must be included among the most fundamental.…
In these notes I will briefly summarize our knowledge about the dark matter problem, and emphasize the corresponding dynamical aspects. This covers a wide area of research, so I have been selective, and have concentrated on the subject of…
Although they were discovered more than 25 years ago, gamma-ray bursts are still a mystery. Even their characteristic distance is highly uncertain. All that we can be confident about is that they involve compact objects and relativistic…
Probing the existence of hypothetical particles beyond the Standard model often deals with extreme parameters: large energies, tiny cross-sections, large time scales, etc. Sometimes laboratory experiments can test required regions of…
The accelerating expansion of the universe presents an exciting, fundamental challenge to the standard models of particle physics and cosmology. I highlight some of the outstanding challenges in both developing theoretical models and…
A brief summary of some highlights in the study of high energy astrophysical sources over the past decade is presented. It is argued that the great progress that has been made derives largely from the application of new technology to…
The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the hardest unsolved problems in modern physics. Indeed, on one hand, the overwhelming indirect evidence from astrophysics seems to leave no doubt about its existence; on the other…
Black holes are a common feature of the Universe. They are observed as stellar mass black holes spread throughout galaxies and as supermassive objects in their centres. Observations of stars orbiting close to the centre of our Galaxy…
The study of high energy cosmic rays is a diversified field of observational and phenomenological physics addressing questions ranging from shock acceleration of charged particles in various astrophysical objects, via transport properties…
The grand challenges of contemporary fundamental physics---dark matter, dark energy, vacuum energy, inflation and early universe cosmology, singularities and the hierarchy problem---all involve gravity as a key component. And of all…
In these lectures I examine some of the principal issues in cosmology from a particle physics point of view. I begin with nucleosynthesis and show how the primordial abundance of the light elements can help fix the number of (light)…
Based on several recent developments in relativistic astrophysics and observational cosmology, this article discusses prospects of (1) theoretical structure of General Relativity (GR) in the new era and (2) submission of GR to new and…
The high-quality cosmological data, which became available in the last decade, have thrusted upon us a rather preposterous composition for the universe which poses one of the greatest challenges theoretical physics has ever faced: the…
The nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing questions in particle physics. Yet all our present knowledge of the dark sector to date comes from its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Moreover, astronomical…
Exploring dark matter via observations of extreme astrophysical environments -- defined here as heavy compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes, as well as supernovae and compact object merger events -- has been a…
The most important problem in fundamental physics is the description of the contents of the Universe. Today, we know that 95% thereof is totally unknown. Two thirds of that amount is the mysterious Dark Energy described in an interesting…
The prospects of using extreme relativistic laser-matter interactions for laboratory astrophysics are discussed. Laser-driven process simulation of matter dynamics at ultra-high energy density is proposed for the studies of astrophysical…
Cosmic rays have been observed up to energies $10^8$ times larger than those of the best particle accelerators. Studies of astrophysical particles (hadrons, neutrinos and photons) at their highest observed energies have implications for…
Major scientific questions and research opportunities are described on 10 unprioritized plasma astrophysics topics: (1) magnetic reconnection, (2) collisionless shocks and particle acceleration, (3) waves and turbulence, (4) magnetic…
Astrophysics and cosmology can be used to test the standard model of particle physics under conditions and over distance and time scales not accessible to laboratory experiments. Most of the astrophysical observations are in good agreement…