[photo credit: Carnegie Science]
The finding could help solve one of modern astrophysics’ most perplexing puzzles: why the galactic center emits more gamma rays than models predict and what created the towering Fermi bubbles—massive gamma-ray structures centered about the Milky Way’s disk.
But Sands’ advanced magnetohydrodynamic simulations show that Fermi bubble–like features arise naturally from stellar feedback, while gamma-ray emissions fluctuate dramatically due to variable star formation.
The research will enable new constraints on cosmic ray transport and connects to broader questions about the circumgalactic medium.
Sands, a Yale College alumna pursuing her doctorate at Caltech, has noted that “this work lets us be very creative about how we can use data from a bunch of NASA missions and other ground-based telescopes that may not have necessarily been designed to look for dark matter in the first place.”
The free lunch talk runs 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. PDT Friday at Carnegie Observatories’ William T. Golden Auditorium in Pasadena, with hybrid attendance via Zoom.
Modeling Diffuse Gamma-Ray Emission in MHD Galaxy Formation Simulations with Full Cosmic Ray Spectra: Lessons for the Galactic Center and Beyond will run on Friday, Sept. 12 at 12:15 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. PDT. William T. Golden Auditorium, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena. For more call (626) 577-1122 or visit https://carnegiescience.edu/events/isabel-sands-caltech. Tickets: Free admission.
