At the Frontier of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics

Dear Colleagues,

Except photons which are the first messengers that hold the holy grail of observational astronomy and astrophysics, three other important physical phenomena/messengers (i.e. weakly and strongly interacting particles—such as neutrinos and nuclei—and oscillations of the fabric of space–time manifesting as gravitational waves) come together to offer a new synergistic and extraordinary tool of studying and understanding the high-energy universe.

The so-called multimessenger astrophysics makes use of four astrophysical types of messengers: electromagnetic radiation (i.e., radio waves, infrared, to visible light, ultraviolet emission, to X-rays and rays), cosmic rays, neutrinos, and gravitational waves. All these four originate from distant and mysterious astrophysical sources, each of them telling us a different exciting story about obscure galactic and extragalactic worlds, like the active galactic nuclei (black holes) and their relativistic plasma jets, neutron-stars, supernovae and gamma-ray bursts.

Multi-messenger astrophysics is a relatively new field in astrophysics. It started around 30 years ago when we were able to observe, for the first time, messengers (i.e., neutrinos) other than photons coming from the famous SN1987A. Today, various modern observatories, air-borne probes, and telescopes around the globe monitor the whole sky and collectively operate to complement each other as they continuously analyze tons of observational data (cosmic rays, neutrinos, gamma-rays, gravitational ways).

We invite you to share your expertise in this Special Issue dedicated to the exciting field of multi-messenger astrophysics, and we welcome you to contribute original articles or reviews about observational data analyses, perspectives and interpretations, theoretical models, or descriptions about new technological visions concerning designs of new experimental and observational facilities, all of which could help to bring our interpretation of a high-energy universe into a whole new level of understanding.

Dr. Athina Meli
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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