Each year, after having considered candidates world wide, the International Astronomical Union awards its /best astrophysical thesis/ prize in each of its nine sections.
For its award, the executive committee rewards the exceptional nature of the scientific work which was done.
Guillaume Voisin is among the happy laureates having been awarded the prize in Division D : “High energy phenomena and fundamental physics”.
His thesis, directed by Fabrice Mottez, entitled « The numerical simulation of pulsar magnetospheres : a detailed study of the radiative processes » was presented on October 23rd 2017 at the Laboratoire Univers et Théorie - LUTH of the Paris Observatory - PSL.
Summary of the thesis :
Gamma ray observations of pulsars have evolved exceptionally rapidly since the launch of the Fermi satellite, while radio observations have enabled in certain cases an extremely precise timing to be made of the pulsar signals.
Nevertheless, there is to date no perfectly self consistent model for pulsar magnetospheres.
It is moreover necessary to explain as far as possible the wide diversity of observations at all wavelengths : the absence of gamma ray or radio emission, X-ray emission... and also the sometimes exotic high energy radiation transfer mechanisms which are believed to occur in pulsar magneto-spheres.
To do this, it will be necessary to first develop the theoretical tools required to describe the sometimes quantum magnetosphere electrodynamics in a form which will enable one ultimately to include it in a detailed numerical form and so lead to the simulation of the gamma ray radiation spectra.
To know more :
https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann18021/
Contact : Guillaume Voisin