Abstract: Sagittarius A* is the closest example of a supermassive black hole and our proximity allows us to detect its emission in the radio, sub-millimeter, near IR, and X-ray regimes. Ambitious monitoring campaigns have yielded rich multiwavelength, time-resolved data, which probe the black hole's feeding and growth. In particular, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured several spectacularly bright X-ray flares from Sgr A*, which may hold crucial information about the black hole’s accretion flow and spin. I will review the status of Sgr A* monitoring campaigns from Chandra, Swift, Spitzer and the VLA, and recent Chandra coordination with the Event Horizon Telescope. I will also discuss how these observations might constrain models for Sgr A*'s variability, which range from tidal disruption of asteroids to gravitational lensing to collimated outflows to magnetic reconnection.
Collins Conference Room
Seminar
US Mountain Time
Speaker:
Daryl Haggard, McGill University
Our campus is closed to the public for this event.