Date
|
Topic
|
Papers
|
Speaker(s)
|
| Jan. 12 |
Course introduction (Mike Shull) and the basics of accretion disks
(Mike Nowak) |
|
|
| Jan. 19 |
Lecture - Black hole physics via cool web animations (Andrew Hamilton) |
|
|
| Jan. 26 |
Spectral and timing observations of black holes. Here we
will motivate the future discussions of accretion onto black holes by examining
recent X-ray observations of Galactic Black Hole Candidates. |
|
|
| Feb. 2 |
Standard accretion disk theory and viscosity mechanisms. We begin
by reviewing the basic physics of disk accretion, and then consider
a possible mechanism for generating the viscosity in an accretion disk. |
-
`BLACK
HOLES IN BINARY SYSTEMS: OBSERVATIONAL APPEARANCE', Shakura & Sunyaev,
1973, A&A, 24, 337
-
`IS
THE OORT A-VALUE A UNIVERSAL GROWTH LIMIT FOR ACCRETION DISK
SHEAR INSTABILITIES?', Balbus & Hawley, 1992, ApJ, 392, 662
|
|
| Feb. 9 |
Instabilities that plague accretion disk models. These instabilities
may be the ultimate cause of outbursts in dwarf novae and X-ray novae systems. |
|
|
| Feb. 16 |
Advection Dominated Accretion Flows. After discussing the
`standard' model of accretion last week, we discuss an alternative mode
of accretion which has received a great deal of attention in recent years. |
-
`ION-SUPPORTED TORI AND THE ORIGIN OF RADIO JETS', Rees, Phinney, Begelman
& Blandford, 1982, Nature, 295, 17
-
`ADVECTION
DOMINATED ACCRETION: A SELF-SIMILAR SOLUTION', Narayan & Yi, 1994,
ApJ, 428, L13
|
|
| Feb. 23 |
kHz QPOs in neutron star systems. In recent years, the RXTE satellite
has found quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray flux of various accreting
neutron star systems. Here, we will review these observations and
discuss their importance for our understanding of these neutron star systems. |
|
|
| Mar. 2 |
The Galactic micro-quasars. During this decade, two remarkable
Galactic systems have been discovered. These objects, one of which
is probably the most luminous object in our Galaxy, are thought to be black
hole binaries in which the accreting black holes are ejecting relativistic
jets of plasma. |
-
`RELATIVISTIC MOTION IN A NEARBY BRIGHT X-RAY SOURCE', Tingay et al., 1995,
Nature, 374, 141.
-
`ROSSI
X-RAY TIMING EXPLORER OBSERVATIONS OF GRS1915+105', Greiner, Remillard,
& Morgan, 1996, ApJ, 473, L107
|
|
| Mar. 9 |
-
Lecture - The unification of active galactic nuclei (Jim Chiang)
-
Lecture - The high energy properties of active galactic nuclei (Chris
Reynolds).
|
|
-
Jim Chiang
-
Chris Reynolds
|
| Mar. 16 |
The M87 jet and the Blandford-Znajek process. We
move to discussing extragalactic jets which are ejected from AGN.
We discuss the best staudied of all such jets: the jet in M87.
We then discuss a possible mechanism for forming such jets which involves
tapping the spin energy of the black hole using magnetic fields. |
-
`THE M87 JET', Biretta, 1993, in the book `Astrophysical Jets', eds Burgarella,
Livio & O'Dea, Cambridge
-
Section 3.3 of `PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN AGN', Blandford, 1990, in the book
`Active Galactic Nuclei', Saas Fee 20.
|
|
| Mar. 23 |
SPRING BREAK |
|
|
| Mar. 30 |
Accretion Disk Coronae. Many accretion disk models have to invoke
the idea of a hot corona in order to match X-ray observations. Here we
discuss the nature of this corona. |
-
`X-RAY
SPECTRA FROM TWO PHASE ACCRETION DISKS', Haardt & Maraschi, 1993,
ApJ, 413, 507
-
`SELF-CONSISTENT
THERMAL ACCRETION DISK MODELS FOR COMPACT OBJECTS. II. APPLICATION TO CYG
X-1', Dove, Wilms, Maisack, & Begelman, 1997, ApJ, 487, 759
|
|
| Apr. 6 |
Warped accretion disks. The theory and possible observational
consequences of warped accretion disks will be discussed.
|
-
`RADIATION DRIVEN WARPING:
THE ORIGIN OF WARPS AND PRECESSION IN ACCRETION DISKS', Maloney &
Begelman, 1997, in `Accretion Phenomena and Related Outflows', IAU Colloquium
163, eds. Wickramasinghe, Ferrario, & Bicknell. p. 311
-
`LENSE-THIRRING
PRECESSION AND QPOs IN X-RAY BINARY SYSTEMS', Markovich & Lamb,
1998, ApJ, 507, 316
|
|
| Apr. 13 |
X-ray reflection and iron lines in AGN. Alot of recent
AGN X-ray spectroscopy has focussed upon the X-ray reflection signatures
that are found in the spectrum. These features are found to
probe the strong gravity around a black hole in a very direct way.
|
|
|
| Apr. 20 |
MASER studies of AGN. Some AGN produce very strong
water MASER emission (so-called mega-masers). These provide precision
probes of the gas dynamics in AGN. We discuss the case of NGC4258
in which the MASER dynamics provided one of the strongest cases yet for
there being a supermassive black hole in a galactiuc nucleus.
Will also discuss a more complex case os NGC1068. |
-
`EVIDENCE FOR A BLACK-HOLE FROM HIGH ROTATION VELOCITIES IN A SUB-PARSEC
REGION OF NGC4258', Miyoshi et al, 1995, Nature, 373, 127
-
`VLBI
IMAGING OF WATER MASER EMISSION FROM THE NUCLEAR TORUS OF NGC1068',
Greenhill, Gwinn, Antonucci, & Barvainis, 1996, ApJ, 472, 21
|
|
| Apr. 27 |
Dynamical evidence for BHs. To round
the course off, we will address the direct search for massive black holes
in galactic nuclei. |
|
|