Professors Krawczynski and Kislat lead an experimental astrophysics group. The experimental work includes the development of the balloon-borne X-Calibur scattering X-ray polarimeter scheduled for launch in Fall 2016 (Fort Sumner, NM ) and 2018/2019 (McMurdo, antarctic). The group develops furthermore semiconductor X-ray detectors and the associated readout electronics. The group is actively involved in the analysis and interpretation of the data from current X-ray and gamma-ray satellites, including Chandra, Swift, NuSTAR, and Fermi. The work includes the analysis of X-ray observations of stellar mass black holes, blazars, and gravitationally lensed quasars, and the analysis of AGN observations with the aim to constrain Lorentz invariance. The group does some theoretical work including general relativistic ray tracing studies to study observational signatures of black holes, simulations of gravitationally lensed quasars, and the interpretation of blazar data with various radiation modeling codes.
The research overlaps with that of the other astroparticle groups at the Washington University Physics department, in particular with the research of Professors Buckley (gamma ray astronomy), Israel and Binns (cosmic rays and neutrinos) and Cowsik (gravity on short distances).
