Workshop Venue: LH 5 (F1 09), Physical Sciences Building, IISc
List of Participants: Click here
More information regarding workshop: Website Link
Daksha Overview
The proposed Indian space mission Daksha is comprised of a pair of broadband high-energy satellites designed to give the most sensitive continuous coverage of the high-energy transient sky. With a formidable combination of sensitivity and coverage, Daksha is well-poised to spearhead the high-energy studies in the global multi-messenger astrophysics effort. The two antipodal satellites in a low-inclination low-earth orbit given an effective 84% time-averaged sky coverage, up from ~50% for single missions. The Daksha satellites will be able to detect the largest number of electromagnetic counterparts to high energy sources, detect high redshift GRBs, perform finely time-resolved spectroscopy of bright bursts, and will enable a wide range of science cases including X-ray binary outbursts, pulsar studies, magnetar flares, counterparts to Fast Radio Bursts, Earth-occultation imaging, solar studies, terrestrial gamma-ray flashes. Daksha will also be the only mission to provide all-sky coverage in the soft-X-ray band, yielding the best soft spectra of prompt emission from transient sources.
Daksha is a fully Indian mission, being developed jointly by IIT Bombay, PRL, TIFR, IUCAA, RRI with support from various ISRO centres. Daksha has completed demonstration of laboratory models, and ISRO has set up a study team to evaluate the full mission proposal. The team is addressing the science cases in detail through various refereed publications (5 currently under review, more in preparation). The mission is getting good international response in various conferences. This makes it the right time to grow the science community for the mission, by involving current experts from across the country as well as training new young astronomers. The science cases and hands-on tutorials in this workshop are also broadly applicable to current (lower sensitivity) missions.
Workshop Goals
The workshop will introduce participants to the details of the Daksha mission, its scientific capabilities, and synergy with various projects in India and around the world. The talks are designed to give a flavour of Daksha science cases in different areas of astrophysics. This will allow participants to consider the impact of Daksha in their field of interest. This can be followed up by detailed interactions with the Daksha core team, and potential long-term participation or collaboration.
The Daksha team has created background and response files for the mission. We have also developed software for simulations of GRBs, localisation, earth occultation studies, etc. The hands-on session aims to give participants an exposure to simulated mission data and calculate the scientific results by themselves. Participants are expected to bring their own laptops with the required software installed. After working through the tutorials in the session, participants will be able to access more material online to work through other Daksha simulations.
Program
The workshop will comprise four sessions. The first session will focus on the mission details, capabilities, and status. The next two sessions will have talks covering the wide range of science cases, followed by discussions. The last session will be a hands-on session where participants will use simulated data for science analysis (GRB spectroscopy, pulsar searches, etc).
Participants
The workshop will have 75-80 participants at all career stages. The talks and tutorials will be easily accessible to PhD students, postdocs, etc. Younger students with prior exposure to high energy astrophysics can also participate.
Organisation
The workshop will be conducted by the multi-institute Daksha core team. The organising committee members are Varun Bhalerao (IIT Bombay), Santosh Vadawale (PRL), Shriharsh Tendulkar (TIFR), Gulab Dewangan (IUCAA), Surhud More (IUCAA), Vikram Rana (RRI), Biswajit Paul (RRI), Dipankar Bhattacharya (Ashoka University, IUCAA).