George Wong, Institute for Advanced Study
When
Abstract: The last decade has seen a rapid increase in opportunities for event-horizon-scale black hole science, with interferometric observatories producing exquisite high resolution, high cadence images and astrometry. These new data provide an unparalleled opportunity to directly investigate jet-launching, trans-relativistic plasma, and the details of how fluids and light behave in the vicinity of a black hole. In this talk, I will describe the state-of-the-art in modeling supermassive black hole accretion systems and discuss how uncertainties in the thermodynamics and plasma kinetics can influence the results. I will then describe how analytic results can be combined with numerical simulations to identify novel observables that directly probe spacetime geometry in spite of the messy gastrophysics. I will conclude with my take on the future of the theory and observation of horizon-scale black hole science.
Bio:
George Wong is a theoretical and computational astrophysicist primarily studying supermassive black hole environments in the context of accretion, radiative transfer, photon rings, and jet launching. He develops general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic and polarized radiative transfer codes, which are used to simulate the magnetized accretion disk and jet and predict spectra and polarimetric images of those sources. He is a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, where he co-leads the Theory Working Group, and is active in the design of next generation ground- and space-based near-horizon radio interferometry experiments. George is the Frank and Peggy Taplin Member at the Institute for Advanced Study and holds a joint position as an Associate Research Scholar in the Gravity Initiative at Princeton University. He received his Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Time: 3:30 PM MST
Location: Steward Observatory, Room N505
Reception: Refreshments at 3:00 PM
Live stream: Zoom Meeting ID: 417 674 3144 Passcode: 1985Astro
Watch later: TAP YouTube Channel
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