About this Research Topic
Multi-messenger astrophysics is a relatively new field of research. It started about 30 years ago when the only multi-messenger observations were from the Sun and cosmic neutrinos emitted by Supernova SN1987A.
Multi-messenger studies aim to find the answer to some of the most important problems in high-energy astrophysics and to discover new phenomena by merging the information from the world’s leading observatories. These facilities, collectively representing decades of effort by thousands of scientists, provide us with the first detections of extragalactic sources via “messengers” other than photons: the high-energy neutrinos of the weak interaction, the strongly-interacting nuclei observed as cosmic rays, and the oscillations in the fabric of space-time manifested as gravitational waves. These are complemented by the gamma-ray facilities, which continuously monitor large swaths of the sky for high-energy electromagnetic phenomena. These facilities probe the high-energy universe via all four fundamental forces.
Two recent key milestones for multi-messenger astrophysics were the detections of the extremely high-energy neutrino event IceCube-170922A by the IceCube collaboration and of the gravitational wave GW170817 by LIGO and VIRGO. For both signals, electromagnetic follow ups at various wavelengths were detected at the same location of these events.
In this Research Topic, we are interested in articles analyzing multi-messenger signals, calculating false positive rates of multi-messenger signals, models of high energy phenomena that predict multi-messenger signals (or lack thereof) and models that interpret multi-messenger signals, describing the design of future experiments and new correlation channels. We welcome Original Research articles, as well as Reviews and Perspectives on the next decade of research.
Multi-messenger studies aim to find the answer to some of the most important problems in high-energy astrophysics and to discover new phenomena by merging the information from the world’s leading observatories. These facilities, collectively representing decades of effort by thousands of scientists, provide us with the first detections of extragalactic sources via “messengers” other than photons: the high-energy neutrinos of the weak interaction, the strongly-interacting nuclei observed as cosmic rays, and the oscillations in the fabric of space-time manifested as gravitational waves. These are complemented by the gamma-ray facilities, which continuously monitor large swaths of the sky for high-energy electromagnetic phenomena. These facilities probe the high-energy universe via all four fundamental forces.
Two recent key milestones for multi-messenger astrophysics were the detections of the extremely high-energy neutrino event IceCube-170922A by the IceCube collaboration and of the gravitational wave GW170817 by LIGO and VIRGO. For both signals, electromagnetic follow ups at various wavelengths were detected at the same location of these events.
In this Research Topic, we are interested in articles analyzing multi-messenger signals, calculating false positive rates of multi-messenger signals, models of high energy phenomena that predict multi-messenger signals (or lack thereof) and models that interpret multi-messenger signals, describing the design of future experiments and new correlation channels. We welcome Original Research articles, as well as Reviews and Perspectives on the next decade of research.
Keywords: Multi-Messenger, high-energy neutrinos, very-high-energy gamma rays, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, gravitational waves
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