Seminarium Zakładu Astrofizyki

The study of open charm meson production is an efficient tool for detailed investigations of the properties of hot and dense matter formed in nucleus-nucleus collisions. In particular, charm mesons are of vivid interest in the context of the phase-transition between confined hadronic matter and the quark-gluon plasma. Recently, the NA61/SHINE experiment was supplemented with a Small-Acceptance Vertex Detector (SAVD), motivated by the importance and the possibility of a first direct measurements of open charm mesons in heavy ion collisions at SPS energies.

Detection of gravitational wave signals from mergers of black holes and neutron stars is one the most important discoveries of this century. I shall briefly present the phenomenon of gravitational radiation as predicted by Einstein's general relativity. I shall describe gravitational wave detectors and methods of analysing gravitational wave data. I shall review the observations made during the two observational runs of LIGO and Virgo detector projects. I shall present the physical and astrophysical applications of these observations.

Opacity data are one of the main ingredients in stellar modelling. Theyaffect the transport of energy and, consequently, the stellar structure. Moreover, the values of opacities determine conditions for excitation of heat-driven pulsations as observed, e.g., in main-sequence or classical pulsators.