Colloquium – Carla Frohlich

Carla Fröhlich, North Carolina State University

Astronomical Goldmines

The origin of the elements is a fundamental question that has fascinated humans since the earliest days. Unprecedented observational, experimental, and computational facilities have provided a wealth of data, allowing us to tackle the question of the origin of elements to ever increasing depth and details. Supernovae are some of the earliest sources of element synthesis. Originating from the gravitational collapse of massive stars they are rich multi-physics laboratories. They emit copious quantities of neutrinos, they put on a bright electromagnetic display, and they are a birthplace of neutron stars and black holes. However, numerical simulations remain a challenging and computationally expensive problem, affecting the prediction of observables such as nuclei or lightcurves. Since the detection of GW170817 and the associated kilonova AT2017gfo, neutron star mergers are one confirmed site of heavy element synthesis. However, the observational data of r-process elements indicates the need for additional nucleosynthesis site(s). Finally, most stars are born in binaries (or even multiplets), opening a myriad of channels for how they might end their lives and contribute to the inventory of heavy elements. In this talk, I will present highlights from my research group on the modeling of supernovae, compact object mergers, their nucleosynthesis, and the associated multi-messenger predictions from electromagnetic signals, to neutrinos and gravitational waves.

Bio: Carla Fröhlich is a Swiss and American nuclear astrophysicist. She discovered a new nucleosynthesis process, the neutrino p-process, which for the first time allowed an explanation of some observed abundances in metal-poor stars. Her current research is centered around predicting multi-messenger signals from explosive events, such as core-collapse supernovae and pair-instability supernovae. She is a professor of physics and University Faculty Scholar at North Carolina State University.

September 4, 2025 @ 4:10pm (CST) in 4327 Stevenson Center; light refreshments available at 3:50 PM

Host: J-F Paquet