Talks

Gas accretion onto black holes is thought to power some of the most energetic astrophysical phenomena observed. Black hole accretion disks are efficient engines for converting binding energy into light, and for launching relativistic unbound flows (jets) such as in gamma ray bursts, microquasars and radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). Some systems individually exhibit a wide variety of spectral and bolometric states while others remain remarkably predictable. As their brightest emission usually emanates near the black hole's event horizon, they serve as excellent environments for exploring different theories of gravity or for constraining the black hole's geometry. In this talk I will explain how investigators use modern general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic computer simulations to understand accretion observations and probe the strong-field regime of gravity. In particular, I will focus on three topics. First, I will describe how dynamical models of the accretion flow around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, can help us predict what we will see when observations at the sub-horizon scale are made soon for the first time. Second, I will explain recent developments in simulating cooled thin disks and how their results may affect estimates of black hole spin from the disks' thermal spectra. Last, I will describe how temporal variability analysis of our dynamical simulations can offer insight into the common behavior seen in high-energy emission from black holes with masses of 10 solar masses to a billion solar masses.

Diffeomorphism symmetry is the underlying symmetry of general relativity and deeply intertwined with its dynamics. The notion of diffeomorphism symmetry is however obscured in discrete gravity, which underlies most of the current quantum gravity models. We will propose a notion of diffeomorphism symmetry in discrete models and find that such a symmetry is weakly broken in many models. This is connected to the problem of finding a consistent canonical dynamics for discrete gravity. Finally we will discuss methods to construct models with exact symmetries and elaborate on the connection between diffeomorphism symmetry and triangulation independence.

The hot, gaseous atmospheres of galaxies and clusters of galaxies are repositories for the energy output from accreting, supermassive black holes located in the nuclei of galaxies. X-ray observations show that star formation fueled by gas condensing out of hot atmospheres is strongly suppressed by feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN). This mechanism may solve several outstanding problems in astrophysics, including the numbers of luminous galaxies and their colors, and the excess number of hot baryons in the Universe. The most energetic AGN outbursts may be powered by rapidly-spinning, ultra-massive black holes.