Past Events

back to listing

Linking the Tidal Disruption Event Rate to Its Galaxy Host Properties


Speaker:Dr. Hugo Pfister
Affiliation:Niels Bohr Institutet
Date:January 22, 2020 (Wednesday)
Time:11:00 a.m.
Venue:Room 522, 5/F, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, HKU

Abstract


When a star passes close enough to a black hole, it can be tidally disrupted. When this happens, a bright flare is emitted known as a tidal disruption event. With dozens of events observed, and hundreds to come with the LSST, it becomes possible to probe properties of galaxies more likely to host tidal disruption events, i.e. with a higher tidal disruption event rate. From a theoretical perspective, understanding this relationship between the tidal disruption event rate and its galaxy host properties is challenging. Indeed, tidal disruption events occur on very small (~solar radii) scales, while in order to have a large galaxy sample, cosmological scales (~Mpc) are required. After a brief review on tidal disruption event and observational relationships, I will present different methods to tackle this multi-scale problem from a theoretical perspective. I will then give our latest results linking the tidal disruption event rate to its galaxy host properties.

Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend.