DIFT Colloquium: ‘Gamma Ray Bursts, Cosmic Rays and the Sociology of Science’

Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and Cosmic Rays (CRs) are not difficult to comprehend. Quasars and micro-quasars are seen to emit highly relativistic “Cannonballs” (CBs), though the underlying mechanism remains unfathomable. The observation that core-collapse supernovae also emit CBs —plus some trivial relativistic kinematics— provides a successful understanding of GRBs and CRs. The self-defined “official experts” on these fields resist the evidence, in an explicitly inquisitorial way.

This colloquium is related to the I+D+i project whose reference is CEX2020-001007-S, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. The topic is framed within the following research line: Origin and composition of the universe: Astroparticles and Cosmology (Astro/Cosmo).