"What are Astrophysical Big Bangs & the Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory?"
Dr. Shigehiro Nagataki,
Interdisciplinary Theoretical Science (iTHES) Research Group, RIKEN
Our laboratory, Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, was established on 1st
Apr. 2013. Our group focuses on unveiling lots of mysteries surrounding
astrophysical explosive phenomena such as supernovae (SNe) and gamma-ray
bursts (GRBs). SNe and GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the
universe, and yet very little are known about their explosion mechanisms.
These astrophysical big bangs continue to fascinate us with their unknown
physics and puzzling astronomical phenomena such as gravitational waves,
r-process nucleosynthesis, particle acceleration, high-energy
gamma-rays/neutrinos, ultra high-energy cosmic rays. Through our theoretical
and computational approaches, we strive to reveal the complete pictures of
these violent explosions and provide the-state-of-the-art physical
interpretations for current, cutting-edge observations as well as useful
predictions for future observations by the next-generation astronomical
observatories. We are more than passionate to co-operate with researchers in
RIKEN as well as all other interested groups in Japan and the world, and
together we would like to establish a Utopia in RIKEN for scientists.