Speaker: Tom Russell

Title: Understanding the origin and nature of jets from accreting stellar-mass black holes using multiwavelength observations

Date/Time: April 10, 2019  /  13.40-14.30

Place: FENS 2019

Abstract: There is a universal connection between the accretion and ejection phenomena that are observed in black holes across the mass scale, from stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries to supermassive black holes in AGN. Quantifying this relationship is the first step in understanding how jets are launched, accelerated and collimated. X-ray binaries are ideal systems to study this relationship, as they evolve through their outburst cycles on humanly observable timescales. In such outbursts, their luminosities increase by several orders of magnitude, with the X-ray emission from the accretion disk and the radio emission from the relativistic jets undergoing dramatic, coupled changes. I will present results from comprehensive multiwavelength radio through to X-ray observing campaigns of recent outbursts from two black hole X-ray binaries, discussing how coordinated multiwavelength monitoring campaigns are required to understand the processes occurring around a black hole X-ray binary during outburst. In particular, viewing the evolution of these systems as a whole (with mm/IR/optical observations and not just radio and X-ray) is crucial to understanding how the jet launching region changes with the accretion flow, providing unique information about how jets are launched from accretion flows on all physical scales.

BIO: Dr. Tom Russell did his PhD at Curtin University with Dr. James Miller-Jones on the accretion-ejection coupling in black hole X-ray binaries. Since then he has been a veni fellow at the University of Amsterdam, looking into the coupling for all compact objects.

Contact: Emre Erdem