Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Accretion onto black holes probably powers bright astrophysical sources such as active galactic nuclei, some stellar-mass x-ray sources, gamma-ray bursts, and relativistic radio jets. I will survey developments in the theory of black hole accretion, with a particular focus on those relevant to the Event Horizon Telescope experiment, a global millimeter-wavelength interferometer that will image the luminous, translucent plasma orbiting just outside the event horizon in the galactic center and M87.