SCIENCE SEMINAR
Population Synthesis:
Making Sense of the Close Binary Zoo
Dr. Lorne Nelson
Bishop's University
Friday, October 23, 2009
1:45 - 2:45 pm
Nicolls 1
Population Synthesis is a sophisticated technique that uses the power of high performance computing (HPC) to evaluate the probabilities for the existence (and detection) of any type of object in the astronomical zoo (e.g., carbon stars, black-hole binaries, gamma-ray bursters, and brown dwarfs). It allows us to carry out a statistically rigorous analysis using the results of computational stellar evolution. In this talk I will discuss how population synthesis can be used to understand the properties of various classes of interacting binary systems containing compact objects. Using Monte Carlo methods, an entire population of exotic binary systems that contain compact objects such as white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes can be generated. Although computationally intensive, the evolution of these systems can then be followed numerically over the age of the Universe. Thus an entire population of these systems can be synthesized and the ensemble properties can be compared with the observations.
