Colloquium: Dr. Eileen Meyer | UMBC
In-Person PHYS 401
Location
Physics : 401
Date & Time
October 30, 2024, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Description
TITLE: "From the event horizon to mega-parsec scales: jets from super-massive black holes”
ABSTRACT: One of the first things that astronomers usually determine for any new astrophysical source class is the emission process generating the radiation -- thermal, synchrotron, inverse Compton, Bremsstrahlung, etc. Identifying these processes is critical to using the EM observations to probe the physical environments of very distant objects. Despite the fact that jets from actively accreting super-massive black holes were first understood to exist over 40 years ago, we are still in ignorance about many primary aspects of these systems -- including how jets are launched from the black hole itself, to their particle makeup and emission mechanism at high energies. I will discuss a particular newer class of active galaxies known as “changing state” AGN, and what we hope to learn with both population studies and intensive monitoring campaigns on single sources. I will conclude with some perspectives on how proposed new observatories like AXIS can help us solve long-open questions in the study of actively accreting black holes.
ABSTRACT: One of the first things that astronomers usually determine for any new astrophysical source class is the emission process generating the radiation -- thermal, synchrotron, inverse Compton, Bremsstrahlung, etc. Identifying these processes is critical to using the EM observations to probe the physical environments of very distant objects. Despite the fact that jets from actively accreting super-massive black holes were first understood to exist over 40 years ago, we are still in ignorance about many primary aspects of these systems -- including how jets are launched from the black hole itself, to their particle makeup and emission mechanism at high energies. I will discuss a particular newer class of active galaxies known as “changing state” AGN, and what we hope to learn with both population studies and intensive monitoring campaigns on single sources. I will conclude with some perspectives on how proposed new observatories like AXIS can help us solve long-open questions in the study of actively accreting black holes.
