Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014; Savannah, Georgia
Session K4: Invited Session: Jets and Astophysical Tests of General Relativity |
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Sponsoring Units: DAP GGR Chair: Grzegorz Madejski, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Room: Chatham Ballroom C |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
K4.00001: Observationally constraining the jet power extracted from spinning black holes Invited Speaker: Sera Markoff Black holes of all sizes, from stellar to supermassive, launch relativistic jets of magnetized plasma that can radiate across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. These flows originate from near-event horizon scales, where ordered magnetic fields threading the plasma likely play a defining role in their collimation and source of power. Depending on where the power is extracted from in the system, e.g., the inner accretion flow or the ergosphere of the black hole, there can be a markedly different dependence of observed power on black hole spin. Further complicating our ability to derive the spin from observations is the fact that the exact relationship between jet emission properties and spin will be very model dependent, and the fact that jets themselves evolve depending on the state of the accretion flow. I will present an overview of the current state of the art in understanding black hole jet observations and their relation to spin, as well as discuss some special cases like our Galactic center's supermassive black hole Sgr A*, and the evolving jets observed in X-ray binary systems. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 2:06PM - 2:42PM |
K4.00002: GRMHD simulations of black hole accretion and jets Invited Speaker: Alexander Tchekhovskoy As black holes accrete surrounding gas, they often produce relativistic, collimated outflows, or jets. Jets are expected to form in the vicinity of a black hole, making them powerful probes of strong-field gravity. However, how the properties of a jet connect to those of the accretion flow and the black hole (e.g. black hole spin) remains an area of active research. I will discuss recent progress in first-principles general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) models of black hole accretion-jet systems, specifically the emerging picture of how jets form and the factors that determine jet properties. [Preview Abstract] |
Sunday, April 6, 2014 2:42PM - 3:18PM |
K4.00003: Tests of GR Using Neutron Star - White Dwarf Binaries Invited Speaker: Scott Ransom Binary radio pulsars, and in particular the double neutron star (NS) systems, provide famous tests of general relativity due to their relatively compact orbits and the precision with which we can measure them via pulsar timing. Neutron star - white dwarf (WD) systems, though, allow qualitatively different tests of GR due to the several orders-of-magnitude difference in the self-gravities of their compact objects. Compact NS-WD systems, like PSR J1141-6545 and the recently discovered J0348+0432, with a high-mass NS, can test the radiative properties of gravity, such as the possibility of dipolar gravitational wave emission. NS-WD systems in wide circular orbits have been used to test the strong equivalence principle (SEP) by looking for a ``polarization'' of their orbits via the Nordtvedt effect. Recently, a millisecond pulsar in a triple system, J0337+1715, was discovered which promises much stronger tests of the SEP in the near future. Finally, ongoing pulsar surveys by all the World's major single-dish radio telescopes will continue to provide exotic (and surprising!) systems for us to monitor. [Preview Abstract] |
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