Astrophysics Seminars

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
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...

Mar
03
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

Fire and Ice: The role of energetic processes in the cold chemistry of protoplanetary disks
Ilse Cleeves
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library

Planets form from the coldest and densest parts of circumstellar disks around young stars. During this phase, the active nature of the star subjects the disk to relatively high fluxes of UV and X-ray photons and energetic particles. Simultaneously...

Feb
18
2016

Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar - TITLE ADDED

Stellar Dynamics around a Massive Black Hole
11:00am|Bloomberg Hall, Astrophysics Library

Galactic nuclei and the Massive black holes (MBHs) in their centers are rich environments, where the complex stellar dynamics plays an important role in many physical phenomena. We show that the standard description of the two-body relaxation...