Black Hole Accretion in Low-Luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

AST 0206006 Quataert Black holes, a prediction of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity, represent the ultimate victory of gravity over all other forces in the Universe; so much mass is concentrated in such a small volume that nothing, not even light, can escape. In the past decade, astronomers have provided convincing evidence that most galaxies in the Universe have a massive black hole at their center; these are a million to a billion times more massive than our Sun. Such black holes can be detected by several techniques, including the radiation produced by hot gas falling into the black hole. In some cases this gas produces more light than all of the billions of stars in the host galaxy which harbors the black hole. Most of the time, however, massive black holes produce surprisingly little radiation from accreting gas. This research is aimed at understanding this impressive range in energy production. Dr. Quataert and collaborators will carry out theoretical calculations of the properties of hot gas in the vicinity of a black hole, both analytically ("pencil and paper") and using computer simulations. They will focus on determining how much gas falls into a black hole and how much radiation this gas produces. They will then compare these results to observations from facilities such as the Very Large Array (VLA) Radio Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. ***