"The Nature, Gastrophysics, and Cosmological Impact of Black Holes"

天体物理学黑洞是经典广义相对论的奇异而有力的预言，是众多高能现象的场所，是宇宙小尺度和大尺度耦合的机制，也是发展统一量子理论的努力中相当有争议的对象。大规模计算技术的进步，最近全球毫米波射电望远镜阵列的发展，能够解决附近超大质量黑洞的事件视界，一种新的黑洞类别的诱人迹象，弥合了恒星和超大质量黑洞之间的差距，以及超大质量黑洞在宇宙学上的新重要性，这些都使人们能够并激励人们做出新的努力来解决黑洞科学中悬而未决的问题。这些问题包括：“黑洞存在吗？”、“广义相对论能否准确描述视界附近的引力？”、“它们如何与周围环境相互作用？”以及“它们在宇宙尺度上对宇宙有什么影响？”这些是密不可分的；活跃星系核的发射和流出在星系和星系外的尺度上占有显著地位，是由靠近中心黑洞视界的事件提供动力和发射的，相反，黑洞吸积物质的速度是由星系尺度上可用的供应和吸积过程的物理学决定的。我的主要重点是寻找方法，将新的和新兴的观察和理论技术应用于所有尺度上的这些基本问题。

Astrophysical black holes are simultaneously exotic and robust predictions of classical general relativity, the sites of numerous high-energy phenomena, mechanisms coupling the small and large scales of the Universe, and an object of considerable controversy in efforts to develop a unified quantum theory. Advances in the availability of large-scale computing, the recent development of a global array of mm-wave radio telescopes capable of resolving the event horizons of nearby supermassive black holes, tantalizing hints of a new class of black holes that bridge the gap between the stellar and supermassive varieties, and the renewed cosmological importance of supermassive black holes both enable and motivate novel efforts to address outstanding questions in black hole science. Among these are "Do black holes exist?", "Does general relativity provide an accurate description of gravity in the vicinity of the horizon", "How do they interact with their immediate environments?", and "What impact do they have upon the Universe on cosmological scales?" These are inextricably linked; the emission and outflows from active galactic nuclei that figure prominently in galactic and extra-galactic scales are powered and launched by events near the central black hole's horizon, and conversely, the rate at which black holes accrete matter is dictated by both the supply available on galactic scales and the physics of the accretion process. My primary focus is identifying ways to bring new and emerging observational and theoretical techniques to bear upon these fundamental questions on all scales.