Description:

Abstract: Based on state-of-the-art general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, I will discuss how black holes feast on the surrounding gas, burp away their surroundings, and produce bright fireworks in various contexts ranging from neutron star collisions, to dying massive stars, and to active galactic nuclei. Colliding neutron stars are particularly exciting because their fireworks come in a package with gravitational waves (GWs) that are detectable by ground-based interferometers. In a paradigm shift, we have discovered that as a massive star dies, the newly formed black hole at its center can launch jetted outflows and stir up large-scale gas motions that emit GWs detectable from the ground. We anticipate 0.1-10 such events in the upcoming LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA observing run O4. These new, non-inspiral GW sources resemble the roar of a jet engine rather than a chirp. They make attractive targeted GW searches that use coincident detections of fireworks from dying massive stars (<~ 200 Mpc) to boost GW detection sensitivity.

Speaker: Sasha Tchekhovskoy, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University

Host: Fred Rasio