Chief Scientist Laboratories Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory
Chief Scientist: Shigehiro Nagataki (Ph.D.)
Research Summary

Our laboratory, Astrophysical Big Bang Laboratory, was established on 1st Apr. 2013. Our group focuses on unveiling lots of mysteries surrounding astrophysical explosive phenomena such as supernovae (SNe) and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). SNe and GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the universe, and yet very little are known about their explosion mechanisms. These astrophysical big bangs continue to fascinate us with their unknown physics and puzzling astronomical phenomena such as gravitational waves, r-process nucleosynthesis, particle acceleration, high-energy gamma-rays/neutrinos, ultra high-energy cosmic rays. Through our theoretical and computational approaches, we strive to reveal the complete pictures of these violent explosions and provide the-state-of-the-art physical interpretations for current, cutting-edge observations as well as useful predictions for future observations by the next-generation astronomical observatories. We are more than passionate to co-operate with researchers in RIKEN as well as all other interested groups in Japan and the world, and together we would like to establish a Utopia in RIKEN for scientists.
Main Research Fields
- Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Related Research Fields
- Informatics
- Theoretical Astrophysics
- Astroparticle Physics
- Nuclear Astronomy
Keywords
- Supernovae
- Gamma-Ray Bursts
- Black Holes
- Neutron Stars
- Cosmic Rays
Selected Publications
- 1.Utrobin, V., Wongwathanarat, A., Janka, T., Muller, E.:
"Supernova 1987A: Neutrino-driven Explosions in Three Dimensions and Light Curves"
Astronomy and Astrophysics Volume 581 id.A40 (2015). - 2.Ito, H., Matsumoto, J., Nagataki, S., Warren, D., Barkov, M.:
"Photospheric Emission from Collapsar Jets in 3D Relativistic Hydrodynamics"
The Astrophysical Journal Letters Volume 814, 29 (2015). - 3.Warren, D., Ellison, D., Bykov, A., Lee, S.-H.:
"Electron and Ion Acceleration in Relativistic Shocks with Applications to GRB Afterglows"
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Volume 452, 431 (2015). - 4.Mao, J., Ono, M., Nagataki, S., Hashimoto, M., Ito, H., Matsumoto, J., Dainotti, M., Lee, S.-H.:
"Matter Mixing in Core-Collapse Supernova Ejecta: Large Density Perturbations in the Progenitor Stars?"
The Astrophysical Journal Volume 808, id.164 (2015). - 5.Lee, S.-H., Patnaude, D.J., Raymond, J.C., Nagataki, S., Slane, P.O., Ellison, D.C.:
"Modeling Bright gamma-Ray and Radio Emission at Fast Cloud Shocks"
The Astrophysical Journal Volume 806, id.71 (2015). - 6.Patnaude, D.J., Lee, S-H., Slane, P.O.,.Badenes, C., Heger, A., Ellison, D.C., Nagataki, S.:
"Are Models for Core-Collapse Supernova Progenitors Consistent with the Properties of Supernova Remnants?"
The Astrophysical Journal Volume 803, id.101 (2015). - 7.Bosch-Ramon, V., Barkov, M. V., Perucho, M.:
"Orbital evolution of colliding star and pulsar winds in 2D and 3D; effects of: dimensionality, EoS, resolution, and grid size"
Astronomy and Astrophysics Volume 577, id.A89 (2015). - 8.Sumiyoshi, K., Takiwaki, T., Matsufuru, H., Yamada, S.:
"Multi-dimensional Features of Neutrino Transfer in Core-collapse Supernovae"
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, Volume 216, article id. 5, 37 pp. (2015). - 9.Lee, S-H., Patnaude, D.J., Ellison, D.C., Nagataki, S., Slane, P. O.:
"Reverse and Forward Shock X-Ray Emission in an Evolutionary Model of Supernova Remnants Undergoing Efficient Diffusive Shock Acceleration"
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 791, id. 97, 18 pp. (2014). - 10.Ito, H., Nagataki, S., Matsumoto, J., Lee, S-H., Tolstov, A., Mao, J., Dainotti, M., Mizuta, A.:
"Spectral and Polarization Properties of Photospheric Emission from Stratified Jets"
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 789, id. 159, 19 pp. (2014).
Recent Research Results
Mar. 19, 2020
Merger between two stars led to iconic supernova
Events
Publications
Annual research report
Related Links
Lab Members
Principal investigator
- Shigehiro Nagataki
- Chief Scientist
Core members
- Akira Mizuta
- Research Scientist
- Masaomi Ono
- Research Scientist
- Hirotaka Ito
- Research Scientist
- Gilles Ferrand
- Research Scientist
- Eiji Kido
- Research Scientist
- Hajime Sotani
- Research Scientist
- Nobuya Nishimura
- Research Scientist
- Yuki Takei
- Junior Research Associate
- Haoning He
- Visiting Scientist
- Oliver Just
- Visiting Scientist
- Maxim Barkov
- Visiting Scientist
- Yohei Kawazura
- Visiting Scientist
- Susumu Inoue
- Visiting Scientist
Contact Information
S217 Main Research Building,
2-1 Hirosawa,
Wako, Saitama
351-0198, Japan
Email: shigehiro.nagataki [at] riken.jp