Accretion & Relativistic Jet Physics in Accreting Compact Objects

吸积盘过程是普遍存在的，物质往往会通过旋转的圆盘落到物体上。天文学家已经在恒星系统的前身、恒星致密残骸周围(吸积的白矮星、中子星和恒星质量的黑洞)以及具有超大质量黑洞的星系中心(活动星系核，AGN)观察到了吸积盘。这种通过圆盘的物质流入也与物质的流出相关联。这些外流可能以盘风、非相对论喷流的形式出现，在吸积致密天体的情况下，也可能以相对论喷流的形式出现。尽管有这种普遍性，但在我们对吸积和喷流物理的理解中仍有许多悬而未决的问题。 由于活动星系核中的相对论喷流被怀疑在连接活动星系核和星系形成的反馈循环中扮演着重要角色，盘-喷流耦合的故事很可能与人类如何来到这里的故事交织在一起。对于~1-100Myr的爆发时间尺度，人们必须研究大量的活动星系核，以了解在整个爆发周期中发生的吸积和喷流物理。然而，恒星质量吸积的致密天体在几周到几十年的时间尺度上经历了整个爆发。对这类天体整个爆发的研究扩大了我们对吸积和喷流物理更广泛领域的理解。 我的研究项目集中在吸积和相对论喷流的物理学上，特别是它们在吸积致密物体中的联系。我使用对这些系统的全色观测来约束吸积和相对论喷流的物理学。我的长期目标是准确地将喷流性质的演变与吸积盘在所有吸积区域中的光谱和时间性质的具体和详细的演变联系起来。通过这样做，我的目标是充分了解吸积和相对论喷流物理学，以准确地确定恒星质量和超大质量吸积致密天体在星系形成中的作用。 我的短期工作将利用对活跃吸积恒星质量黑洞的协调全色观测，将喷流属性的演变与特定的吸积盘属性联系起来，这是一系列国际设施(包括加拿大国家研究理事会或加拿大航天局共同支持的设施，如超大型阵列、阿塔卡马大毫米阵列和ASTROSAT天文台)和合作者的分级项目的一部分。为了更好地研究恒星质量的吸积黑洞，并将我的工作扩展到其他吸积致密天体，我将开发和实施新的技术，利用新的观测能力，并迅速传播新发现的吸积致密天体的知识。作为发现助学金的一部分，我将培训4名博士、2名硕士和5名本科生。

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.