Irene Tamborra Receives grant from Villum Foundation

Knud Højgaard Foundation Associate Professor Irene Tamborra has received a grant from the Villum Foundation under its Villum Young Investigator Plus program, following up on the Villum Young Ivestigator grant Irene Tamborra received five years ago. The grant is awarded for her project “Neutron stars rattling, shining, and sparkling” which aims to take a closer look at one of the hottest topics in astrophysics today: the creation of elements heavier than iron i the universe. Among several possible mechanisms, the merging of two neutron stars under the emission of gravitational waves and under the immense tidal forces of strong gravity could provide an important arena for this synthesis of heavier elements. New evidence has come up in connection with the observation of simultaneous gravitational and electromagnetic radiation from the extremely violent coalescence of two neutron stars occurring in deep space, observed in 2017. That event forms the basis for Irene Tamborra's new project, and the current prediction is that there are many more of these kinds of events to investigate in the future.

The new grant from the Villum Foundation will allow Irene Tamborra to hire one PhD-student and one post-doc to work on this project over the next three years.