Abstract:
The data collected with the Event Horizon Telescope provided the first horizon-scale images of two nearby supermassive black holes. A tremendous amount of theoretical modeling and interpretation, including large simulation libraries and new analysis tools, were necessary to extract physical constraints from these images and perform quantitative tests of General Relativity, plasma physics, and black hole environments. In this talk, I will discuss: 1. the physics behind the simulations and where they succeeded and failed; 2. new directions in plasma astrophysics that are necessary to go beyond the current state-of-the-art; and 3. how the simulation libraries and machine-learning approaches have, in turn, helped us make better black hole images.