Abstract
Accretion onto black holes is the most efficient mechanism in converting mass to energy. Studying how matter is accreted onto black holes and how energy is generated is crucial for us to understand the growth of black holes and their feedback to galaxies. Tidal disruption events, where a star is torn apart by the tidal force of a massive black hole, allow us to probe the most extreme type of black hole accretion — super-Eddington accretion. During such accretion process, strong radiation, magnetism, and dense gas all battle under general relativity near the black hole, and enormous radiation and outflows are released. I utilize and develop novel general relativistic codes, which are needed to untangle the physics of such extreme accretion. I will talk about the latest developments in the field of tidal disruption events, and then focus on my simulation results which show how the theoretical Eddington limit can be violated in these events. Based on simulation results, I propose a unified model which can explain the different types of observed tidal disruption events. In the new era of time-domain astronomy with upcoming instruments such as LSST, studies involving advanced computational codes will lead to direct test of general relativity and new insight into black hole accretion physics.
Anyone interested is welcome to attend.