The Imprint of Gamma-ray Bursts over Cosmic Space and Time

Nicole Lloyd-Ronning (LANL)

January 27, 2026

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Abstract: The most luminous objects in our universe, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), are spectacular laboratories for investigating a number of unsolved problems in physics and astronomy. However, recent observations of both long and short GRBs have provided tantalizing evidence that our standard view of these powerful events is missing key physics. In this talk I will discuss a large multi-code effort to model gamma-ray bursts across many orders of magnitude in spatial and temporal scales. I will describe the framework of our code-linking techniques, and then present results on correlations within, and the cosmological evolution of, key GRB observables. I will show how these results can not only help us understand GRBs themselves, but the rates and evolution of massive stellar systems in general. Time permitting, I will end this talk with some new results on r-process nucleosynthesis in the jets of collapsar systems, which may shed light on mysteries associated with heavy element abundances at the earliest times in our cosmic history.