The Fermi Summer School emphasizes the analysis of data from the Fermi instruments through lectures and hands-on workshops. Students spend time working directly with experts in instrumentation, analysis, theory and modeling to develop and extend their own research projects. Topics cover much of the gamma-ray band ranging from keV-MeV transients seen with Fermi's GBM to the highest energies observed by the LAT and the very high energies observed by ground-based gamma-ray telescopes. This year's school will be held at the University of Delaware Conference Center in Lewes, Delaware, from May 28 to June 7, 2024.
Material will be aimed at graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. Topics will include particle acceleration and gamma-ray production mechanisms; space-based and ground-based gamma-ray instrumentation; spectral, spatial, and time-based analysis of gamma-ray data; modeling and interpretation of gamma-ray data; and astrophysical source classes such as AGN, GRBs, Galactic pulsars and binary systems, supernova remnants, and pulsar wind nebulae as well as searches for dark matter and new physics.
The software necessary for the tutorials (such as the Fermitools) are distributed in the FermiBottle Docker Container, a fully-functional, self-contained analysis environment. Please go through the Summer School Checklist to make sure the container is functioning correctly.
Go directly to Week 1 or Week 2. All times are in Eastern Daylight Time (UTC−04:00).
See our Code of Conduct and COVID-19 guidelines.
Tues, May 28 | Wed, May 29 | Thurs, May 30 | Fri, May 31 | Sat, June 1 | |
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8:00 | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
9:00 | Welcome and Introductions - Liz | Intro to Fermi LAT - Liz | Intro to Fermi GBM - Cori Fletcher | GBM Science - Cori | Dark Matter - Tim |
10:00 | Intro to the Fermi Mission and Sky - Liz Hays | Active Galactic Nuclei - Manel Errando | Resources for Impostor Syndrome (with much gratitude to Amy Furniss) | Diffuse Gamma Rays - Tim Linden | Polarization - Manel |
11:00 | Break | Break | Break | Break (Photo!) | Break |
11:30 | Intro to Maximum Likelihood - Matthew Kerr | Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries | |||
12:30 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
1:30 | Getting started with Fermi: Tools and Resources - Joe Eggen, Joe Asercion, Alex Reustle, Nestor Mirabal (remote), Don Horner (remote) | Getting Started with Likelihood Analysis - Liz, Joe, Matthew fermi-summer-school Github repository - See README file for instructions to download files for the analysis | Next Steps with Likelihood - Liz | Advanced Likelihood/Student Projects Working with a software repository: git basics FindSource notebook: Example of adding a source to the LAT catalog model. Test for a detection and locate a new source. | Time domain surveys - Special guests Advanced Tutorials: Light Curves and the LAT Light Curve Repository / Student Projects Curvature Test Example - compares 2 spectral fits of the 3C279 example from Wednesday. |
4:45 | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up |
Bike rental pick-up - leave by 4:30 | Crab Feast |
Mon, June 3 | Tues, June 4 | Wed, June 5 | Thurs, June 6 | Fri, June 7 | |
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8:00 | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast |
9:00 | 9:00 -9:30 Pack up. Feedback Form | ||||
10:00 | |||||
11:00 | Break | Break | Break | Break | Break |
11:30 | Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries | Student Talks / 1 Slide Summaries | Complete packing up and return bikes. | ||
12:30 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch |
1:30 | Free Afternoon | ||||
4:45 | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up | End of the Day Tag-up | ||
Sunset cruise |
Saturday, June 1
Monday, June 3
Tuesday, June 4
Wednesday, June 5
Thursday, June 6