NU and University of California, Berkeley researchers successfully predicted gamma-ray bursts

Researchers of the Energetic Cosmos Laboratory at Nazarbayev University and University of California Berkeley successfully predicted bursts from a rare astrophysical object, called soft gamma repeater.

Mikhail Denissenya, Bruce Grossan, and Eric Linder discovered an unusual pattern of gamma-ray bursts ( immense energetic explosions). The scientists found out that the soft gamma-repeater exhibits the so-called periodic windowed behavior. Bursts occasionally occur within a regular four-month window of time followed by three months of inactivity. This pattern keeps on repeating over and over. This finding allowed researchers not only to calculate the frequency of gamma-ray bursts, but also to test their theory by observing the sky.

“So far, we have observed bursts over 10 windowed periods since 2014, and the probability is 3 in 10,000 that while we think it is periodic windowed, it is actually random,” – said Eric Linder, a member of the Supernova Cosmology Project based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a leader of the Theory and Data Analysis division at the Energetic Cosmos Laboratory.

“The most intriguing and fun part for me was to make predictions that could be tested in the sky. We then ran simulations against real and random patterns and found it really did tell us about the bursts,” –  concluded a postdoctoral fellow Mikhail Denissenya at the Energetic Cosmos Laboratory.

The scientists were able to predict more than a dozen bursts, which can be observed from June 1 to October 7, 202. The data are verified by worldwide observatories including Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope and Konus-Wind. The researchers hope that their discovery will lead to better understanding of these fascinating phenomena.

The Energetic Cosmos Laboratory (ECL) at Nazarbayev University was founded in 2015 by Nobel laureate Professor George Smoot. The members of the laboratory work on exploring some of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos, including the birth and evolution of the Universe.