Research by Tim Magee ’09 and Thulsi Wickramasinghe, associate professor of physics, has yielded important new data on the energy emitted by Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs).

Magee and Wickramasinghe were examining how the photon energy of light emitted at the source of a GRB correlates to the total amount of energy coming out of the burst. Their research uncovered that the correlation, first noted by Lorenzo Amati, an Italian astrophysicist, was “even stronger” than previously suspected, Magee said.

The two announced their findings at the International Conference on Neutron Stars and Gamma Ray Bursts in Egypt this past spring, where they received “very good feedback” from some of the world’s leading astronomers working in the field of GRBs, Wickramasinghe said.

Previous work on this subject had been done using “currently accepted Gamma Ray Burst models,” Magee explained. But “Gamma Ray Bursts aren’t well understood yet, so the models [astronomers] have…only work for about half the bursts,” Magee continued. “Using that type of model-dependant approach on something for which we don’t have [an accurate] model yet didn’t seem like a good idea. So we took that aspect out of it, and used directly observed data instead.” This was the key to their uncovering this “robust relationship,” Wickramasinghe said.

Magee, who was one of only two undergraduate students in the world to attend the conference, said, “I learned so much listening to the different lectures, talking with other attendees, throwing ideas around with them. It was an invaluable experience.”

Although their work focused on GRBs, Magee and Wickramasinghe’s findings could eventually play a role in attaining more accurate measurements of the dark energy of the cosmos. Many think dark energy, which is the energy content of free space and accounts for nearly three quarters of the total energy of the universe, could hold the secrets of the origins of the universe.

Astronomers measure dark energy by observing Type Ia Supernovae, or exploding stars, the “models” for which are “very standardized,” Magee explained. GRBs, though, can be seen from greater distances than Supernovae, meaning astronomers could conceivably gain more accurate measurements through their observation. But not enough is yet known about GRBs to produce accurate measurements through observation, Magee explained.

“To this point, we don’t have anything that would standardize Gamma Ray Bursts to [the same extent as Type I a Supernovae],” Magee said. “But if we can standardize them, they would be a lot better than Type Ia Supernovae.” Magee and Wickramasinghe’s findings could be one piece of the puzzle in creating standardized models for these events.

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