Astronomy on Tap Corvallis: Compact Object Eruptions: How Black Holes and Neutron Stars Drive Explosions

Join us on Tuesday December 9th at 7pm for a talk by Nathan Walker a PhD. candidate from OSU. His talk is titled:

Compact Object Eruptions: How Black Holes and Neutron Stars Drive Explosions

Black holes and neutron stars play a crucial role in astrophysics. Active galactic nuclei, kilonovae, and gamma-ray bursts all invoke compact objects to produce the signals we observe. However, the mechanisms that allows for a black hole to launch outflows that can be detected on earth have not been easy to pin down. In this talk, I will give an overview of this topic, including how black holes can form in astrophysical systems, how we can model them, and how energy can be extracted from them. This will culminate in the Blandford-Znajek Process, which is the likely mechanism responsible for launching relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts.

About Nathan Walker

Nathan Walker is a PhD. candidate studying high-energy astrophysics at OSU. Prior to arriving here, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics at Minnesota State University Moorhead and a master’s degree in condensed matter physics at North Dakota State University. His current work involves running simulations to predict properties of gamma-ray burst emission.