Accretion & Relativistic Jet Physics in Accreting Compact Objects

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The accretion disk process, where matter tends to fall onto an object through a rotating disk, is universal. Astronomers have observed accretion disks in the precursors to stellar systems, around the compact remnants of stars (accreting white dwarfs, neutron stars, and stellar-mass black holes), and at the centres of galaxies with supermassive black holes (active galactic nuclei, AGN). This inflow of material through a disk is also associated with an outflow of material. These outflows can arise as disk-winds, non-relativistic jets, and, in the case of accreting compact objects, relativistic jets. Despite this universality, there are still many open issues in our understanding of accretion and jet physics.***As relativistic jets in AGN are suspected to play an important role in the feedback cycle that links AGN and galaxy formation, the story of disk-jet coupling is likely intertwined with the story of how humans got here. With outburst timescales of ~1–100 Myr, one must study large numbers of AGN to understand the accretion and jet physics that occur during entire outburst cycles. However, stellar-mass accreting compact objects evolve through entire outbursts on timescales of weeks to decades. Studies covering entire outbursts of such objects expand our understanding of the broader field of accretion and jet physics.***My research program focuses on the physics of accretion and relativistic jets, and in particular their connection, in accreting compact objects. I use panchromatic observations of these systems to constrain the physics of accretion and relativistic jets. My long-term goal is to precisely connect the evolution of jet properties with the specific and detailed evolution of spectral and timing properties of the accretion disk across all regimes of accretion. By doing so, I aim to understand accretion and relativistic jet physics sufficiently to precisely determine the role of both stellar-mass and supermassive accreting compact objects in galaxy formation.***My short-term work will connect the evolution of jet properties to specific accretion disk properties using coordinated panchromatic observations of actively accreting stellar-mass black holes as part of a tiered set of projects across international sets of facilities (including National Research Council Canada or Canadian Space Agency co-supported facilities such as the Very Large Array, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, and the ASTROSAT observatory) and collaborators. To better study accreting stellar-mass black holes and extend my work to other accreting compact objects, I will develop and implement new techniques that take advantage of new observational capacities and rapidly disseminate knowledge of newly discovered accreting compact objects. I will train 4 PhD, 2 MSc, and 5 undergraduate students as part of this Discovery Grant.**