Comet Calendar
Physics Colloquium: A Brief History of the Galactic Center Supermassive Black Hole
Monday, February 20, 2023 3pm to 4pm
Event Details
Speaker: Shuo Zhang (Bard College)
Abstract: Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) spend the majority of their lives accreting at low rates through radiatively inefficient, advection-dominated accretion flow. Therefore, low-luminosity SMBHs could greatly outnumber their more active cousins and are essential in our understanding of SMBH activity cycles and their relationship to galaxy evolution. In particular, SMBHs harbored in nearby galaxies are found to be remarkably under-luminous. The best studied under-luminous SMBH is the closest such object to Earth, Sgr A*, located at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. In this talk, we will delve into the activity history of Sgr A*, from its current activities back to its behavior a few thousand years ago. We will explore Sgr A*’s mysterious flares amid its quiescent state nowadays, as well as its glorious past as indicated by the surrounding interstellar medium. We will also touch upon the connection between Sgr A* and a powerful particle accelerator, the Galactic center PeVatron, and how to discover more PeVatrons outside of the Galactic center.
Location
Sciences Building (SCI), 3.214A
800 W. Campbell Road, Richardson, Texas 75080-3021
Department
- Natural Sciences & Mathematics
Contact Information
- Michael Kesden
- 972-883-3598
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