Black Hole Weather: Observing it, Predicting it, and Sharing it

ast - 0602259 rothstein DavidDr。罗斯坦获得了美国国家科学基金会天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在康奈尔大学开展研究和教育项目。为了回答以下问题，罗斯坦博士将进行一项独特的理论与观测的综合研究：我们能在多大程度上预测黑洞周围的天气？最近对恒星质量黑洞周围的吸积盘和喷流的观察得出了这些物体可能处于的各种状态的许多细节，但相对而言，人们对触发这些状态之间转换的原因或天气知之甚少。这些转变是理解黑洞和其他天体周围喷流形成的关键，因此它们引起了极大的兴趣。罗斯坦博士将与康奈尔大学的美俄等离子体天体物理学合作，综合GRS 1915+105和其他候选黑洞的观测数据，寻找可用于预测天气的模式，并将其直接与一维和二维模拟的天气预报进行比较，以了解驱动这些物体吸聚的异常粘度的演变及其与射流形成的关系。这一综合结果将放在一个互动网站上，研究界和广大公众将对此感兴趣。罗斯坦还将利用他在纽约州北部学区的工作经验，开始开发一个教育网站，让教师们相互分享课程计划，他将与教师们一起完成物理和天文学的课堂项目，这些项目可以放在这个网站上。

AST-0602259Rothstein, DavidDr. Rothstein is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Cornell University. Dr. Rothstein will conduct a unique synthesis of theory and observation in order to answer the following question: How well can we predict the weather around a black hole? Recent observations of the accretion disks and jets surrounding stellar-mass black holes have yielded many details about the various states that these objects can be in, but comparatively little is known about what triggers the transitions between these states, or the weather. These transitions are the key to understanding the formation of jets around black holes and other astrophysical objects, and they are therefore of great interest. Dr. Rothstein will work with the U.S.-Russia Collaboration in Plasma Astrophysics at Cornell University to synthesize observational data on GRS 1915+105 and other black hole candidates, search it for patterns that can be used to predict the weather, and compare it directly to weather forecasts made from one- and two-dimensional simulations, in order to understand the evolution of the anomalous viscosity that drives accretion in these objects and its relationship to the formation of jets. The results of this synthesis will be placed on an interactive website that will be of interest to the research community and the public at large.Dr. Rothstein will also draw on his experience working with school districts in upstate New York to begin the development of an education website that allows teachers to share lesson plans with each other, and he will work with teachers on classroom projects in physics and astronomy that can be put on this website.