Neutron Stars : A brainstorming workshop

20-21 November, 2014 : NCRA-TIFR, Pune

Organisers : B. C. Joshi, Sushan Konar
 

Neutron Star Physics with the Square Kilometer Array

It is close to half a century since the first detection of a neutron star, in the form of a radio pulsar. Thanks to the technological advancements and a number of very sensitive detectors some 2000+ neutron stars have now been detected with emission spanning almost the whole of the electromagnetic spectrum. The present challenge of neutron star research is therefore to find a unifying theme to make sense of a large number of disparate observational classes of neutron stars.

The fileds of pulsar astronomy and physics of neutrons stars will benefit immensely from an instrument with the capabilities projected for the SKA. Potential applications include pulsar search and survey, pulsar magnetospheric studies, characterising gravitational wave candidates, detection of transient objects (like RRATs) and so on. These will provide new insights and results in topics of fundamental importance. The combination of the high spectral, time and spatial resolution and the unprecedented sensitivity of the SKA will radically advance our understanding of basic physical processes operative in the vast population of neutron stars and provide a solid foundation for the future advancement of the field.

  1. pulsar census
  2. population studies
  3. globular cluster pulsars
  4. galactic centre pulsars
  5. pulsars in external galaxies
  6. pulsar magnetosphere
  7. pulsar wind nebulae
  8. neutron star equations of state
  9. tests for gravity theories
  10. gravitational wave astronomy
  11. galaxy and ISM
The main science goals of the SKA, in regard to pulsar astronomy, is listed above. Evidently, we do not have all the areas covered by the Indian neutron star community. In fact, the emphasis here is mostly on the topics underlined. It would therefore be our effort to see how we can maximally use the SKA to our advantage given the present interests of the community. Moreover, it would be worthwhile to tune our interests, by defining new investigative ideas, in order to take advantage of this instrument.


Program

20 November : Thursday
session - introduction & reviews :::: chair - Sushan Konar
09.00 - 09.15 Welcome  
09.15 - 10.00 Yashwant Gupta Introduction to the SKA and science Possibilities
10.00 - 10.45 Manjari Bagchi The population of neutron stars : looking through theory, simulation and observation
10.45 - 11.30 Bhal Chandra Joshi A census of pulsars with surveys and timing with the SKA
11.30 - 11.45 Coffee-Break  
11.45 - 12.30 Biswajit Paul Deep space navigation with X-ray pulsars
12.30 - 13.15 Dipankar Bhattacharya The Physics of Neutron Stars : open problems in the SKA era
13.15 - 14.45 Lunch-Break  
session - pulsar astronomy :::: chair - Biswajit Paul
14.45 - 15.15 Firoza K. Sutaria Gamma-ray pulsars from Fermi and their multi-waveband counterparts
15.15 - 15.35 Yashwant Gupta Radio observations of Fermi pulsars
15.35 - 15.50 Mayuresh P. Surnis Discovery of PSR J1839+1523 : an intermittent pulsar with unpulsed radio emission
15.50 - 16.10 Yogesh Maan A Decametre Wavelength Pulsar Survey
16.10 - 16.25 Coffee-Break  
16.25 - 16.55 Alak Ray Neutron Stars as Radio Transients
16.55 - 17.10 Manjari Bagchi Fast radio bursts
session - gravitational waves :::: chair - B. C. Joshi
17.10 - 17.40 A Gopakumar Certain theoretical constructs for PTA
17.40 - 18.00 Anuradha Gupta Gravitational waves from spinning compact binaries in hyperbolic orbits
18.00 - 18.20 T K. Jha Constraining models of neutron stars at saturation density


21 November : Friday
session - high energy studies :::: chair - Yashwant Gupta
09.00 - 09.30 Sudip Bhattacharyya Intensity oscillations during thermonuclear burst rise
09.30 - 09.50 Varun Bhalerao NuSTAR's discovery of a cyclotron line in the HMXB IGRJ17544-2619
09.50 - 10.05 Aru Beri Timing and spectral studies of the ultra-compact binary 4U 1626–67
10.05 - 10.20 Nazma Islam Orbital evolution measurements of the eclipsing HMXB 4U 1700-37
10.20 - 10.35 Gayathri Raman Optical Reprocessing in 4U1626-67 using SALT
10.35 - 10.50 Pragati Pradhan Study of pulsation and spectral characteristics of OAO 1657−415 with Suzaku
10.50 - 11.10 Coffee-Break  
session - physics of ns :::: chair - Dipankar Bhattacharya
11.10 - 11.40 Debades Bandyopadhyay Masses and Radii of Neutron Stars: probing Neutron Star interior
11.40 - 12.00 Sarmistha Banik Equation of state for supernova simulations
12.00 - 12.20 Monika Sinha Quenching of superconductivity inside magnetars
12.20 - 12.40 Arunava Mukherjee Observational constraints on spinning, general relativistic Bose-Einstein condensate stars
12.40 - 14.10 Lunch-Break  
14.10 - 14.40 R. T. Gangadhara Trajectory of Pulsar Emission Point
14.40 - 14.55 Mihir Arjunwadkar Inferring pulsar null fractions using Gaussian mixtures
14.55 - 15.10 Mihir Arjunwadkar Statistical evidence suggesting multiple populations in glitching events
15.10 - 15.30 Sushan Konar Magnetic fields of neutron stars
15.30 - 15.45 Coffee-Break  
15.45 - 18.00 Panel Discussion
Panelists : Dipankar Bhattacharya, Yashwant Gupta, B.C. Joshi, Biswajit Paul


Participants :

  • Mihir Arjunwadkar, CMS, University of Pune
  • Manjari Bagchi, IMSc, Chennai
  • Debades Bandyopadhyay, SINP, Kolkata
  • Sarmistha Banik, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad
  • Varun Bhalerao, IUCAA, Pune
  • Dipankar Bhattacharya, IUCAA, Pune
  • Sudip Bhattacharyya, TIFR, Mumbai
  • Prasanta Bera, IUCAA, Pune
  • Aru Beri, IIT, Ropar
  • R. T. Gangadhara, IIA, Bangalore
  • A Gopakumar, TIFR, Mumbai
  • Anuradha Gupta, IUCAA, Pune
  • Yashwant Gupta, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Nissim Kanekar, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Nazma Islam, RRI, Bangalore
  • T K. Jha, BITS-Pilani, Goa
  • Bhal Chandra Joshi, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Sushan Konar, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Yogesh Maan, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Arunava Mukherjee, ICTS, Bangalore
  • Arun Naidu, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Biswajit Paul, RRI, Bangalore
  • Pragati Pradhan, St. Joseph's College, Darjeeling
  • Gayathri Raman, RRI, Bangalore
  • Alak Ray, TIFR, Mumbai
  • Monika Sinha, IIT, Jodhpur
  • Mayuresh P. Surnis, NCRA-TIFR, Pune
  • Firoza K. Sutaria, IIAp, Bangalore
  • Varun, RRI, Bangalore


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