Astrophysics Seminars

May
12
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Quasinormal Modes Beyond Kerr Black Holes
Aaron Zimmerman
2:00pm|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library
NOTE TIME CHANGEThe historic first detection of a gravitational waves from merging black holes came with an unexpected windfall: the first observation of a black hole ringdown. The ringdown of a black hole through damped ``quasinormal'' oscillation...
Apr
14
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

CMB Spectral Distortions within LCDM
Jens Chluba
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library
Spectral distortions of the CMB provide a powerful new probe of early Universe processes. Even if so far no average spectral distortion has been seen, LCDM does predict several signals that are within reach of current technology. In this talk, I...
Mar
31
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Evidence for Excess Dark Matter at the Galactic Plane
Nir Shaviv
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library

Paleoclimatological evidence suggests that the total gravitating mass density at the galactic plane is about twice the baryonic density. I will discuss this measurement and show that it is consistent with the different determinations of the local...

Mar
24
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Probing the Inner Accretion Flow of Supermassive Black Holes with X-ray Reverberation Mapping
Erin Kara
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library
In recent years, X-ray reverberation mapping has opened a new way to investigate the inner accretion flow around black holes. XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the rapid variability in Active Galactic Nuclei have shown that the soft excess...
Mar
17
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Warm Circumstellar Debris Disks: Diagnosing the Unseen Perturber
Erika Nesvold
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library

Observations of circumstellar debris disks have revealed that a subset of this population harbor a warm dust component. This dust is short-lived, requiring continual replenishment, and indicating that the disk must be excited by an unseen perturber...