- The student masters methods from high-energy astrophysics and is able to apply these to stellar and supermassive black holes
- The student is able to model these processes numerically in a simplified setting
- The student understands the physics of accretion disks around black holes
- The student understands the physics of jets and how we can estimate physical conditions around the black hole from them
- The student is able to present scientific results and write reports.
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Accretion is the Universe's powerhouse: over the lifetime of the Universe most electromagnetic radiation has been produced by the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies. These so-called Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) host a range of physics phenomena that are not only important for understanding the physics in the direct environment of these black holes, but also, e.g. through the generation of supersonic jets, on the structure and evolution of the galaxies surrounding these active nuclei. After a general introduction to accretion and the evidence for the existence of various types of black holes, we discuss relativistic jets, synchrotron radiation, shock acceleration, black hole basics, standard accretion discs, advection-dominated accretion flows and tidal disruption events. We will often compare the supermassive black hole accretion and jet phenomena with their small scale analogs found in our milky way, stellar-mass black holes accreting gas from stars.
Instructional Modes
Lectures, Tutorials, Student presentation of a research paper
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Bachelor in Physics and Astronomy |
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Grading will be based on presentation, assignments and an exam which each have the same weight (1/3)
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This course will be given yearly.
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