PIRSA:25030112

Rethinking The Black Hole Corona as an Extended, Multizone Outflow

APA

Hankla, L. (2025). Rethinking The Black Hole Corona as an Extended, Multizone Outflow. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/25030112

MLA

Hankla, Lia. Rethinking The Black Hole Corona as an Extended, Multizone Outflow. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Mar. 26, 2025, https://pirsa.org/25030112

BibTex

          @misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:25030112,
            doi = {10.48660/25030112},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/25030112},
            author = {Hankla, Lia},
            keywords = {Strong Gravity},
            language = {en},
            title = {Rethinking The Black Hole Corona as an Extended, Multizone Outflow},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics},
            year = {2025},
            month = {mar},
            note = {PIRSA:25030112 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/25030112}}
          }
          

Lia Hankla University of Maryland, College Park

Talk numberPIRSA:25030112

Abstract

Observations of luminous black holes in X-ray binaries and Seyfert galaxies show power-law emission, thought to originate from photons that inverse Compton scatter off a hot electron cloud. If the coronal electrons are heated by magnetic dissipation, i.e. reconnection or turbulence, then one might expect to observe direct synchrotron emission in the radio/mm from these electrons. However, because timing studies constrain the X-ray emission to be within ~10 rg of the central black hole, the direct synchrotron emission from this compact volume would be strongly self-absorbed until much further away from BH. In this talk, I will question the de facto definition of the corona as a compact, X-ray-emitting region and shift instead to a paradigm where the corona encompasses multiple layers with distinct spectral components. Motivated by highly-magnetized winds found in GRMHD simulations, I will present a model for such an extended, outflowing corona. I will discuss this model in the context of radio-quiet AGN, where recent observations have demonstrated the presence of compact mm emission.