Event time:
Thursday, March 31, 2022 - 2:30pm
Speaker:
Jason Dexter
Speaker Institution:
University of Colorado
Talk Title:
Radiative Processes and Strong Magnetic Fields Near Accreting Black Holes
Event description:
Magnetic fields are thought to play a vital role in the accretion process by allowing ionized gas to fall in and by launching jets. I will show how the numerical MHD theory of accretion can be compared with frontier observations of black hole images, and argue that the polarized black hole image of M87 implies that the near horizon magnetic fields are dynamically important. I will further discuss the frontier of radiation MHD, with applications to high energy flares from the Galactic center and M87 and to the broadband spectra of higher luminosity AGN and X-ray binary systems.
