Interstellar Turbulence and the Scintillation of Radio Waves

Yoram Lithwick (Caltech) - 5 Dec at 12:00 noon

Radio waves that travel through the interstellar medium are scattered by density fluctuations on very small length scales, typically 10^8-10^10 cm. These density fluctuations are caused by turbulence in the interstellar medium. I will discuss first the scintillation observations, and then how these observations can be understood by a simple theory of compressible MHD turbulence. See http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0106425 for more details.

The seminar will be held in 501 Campbell Hall.


Return to seminar schedule