Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences Colloquium

Monday, August 26, 2019 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Omer Blaes, JILA - visiting fellow

"Thermodynamics and Turbulence in Accretion Disks: From Dwarf Novae to Quasars"

A Pretty Image from the Talk

Abstract:

Just as in many other branches of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, modern supercomputer simulations have been having an enormous impact on our understanding of the physics of accretion onto compact objects. It is now possible to incorporate magnetohydrodynamics and radiation transport (both optically thick and thin) together to produce dynamically and thermodynamically self-consistent simulations. This is providing insight into some long-standing problems between theory and observation in a variety of systems, from enhanced stresses in outbursting white dwarf systems to the production of high energy photons in black hole sources. It is also suggesting that accretion disks can be structurally different in surprising ways from that predicted by classical accretion disk theory.

 

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