Prof. Dr. Rusen Lu (SHAO)

Imaging nearby supermassive black holes and their immediate neighborhoods with millimeter-VLBI

Imagingnearby supermassive black holes and their immediate neighborhoods provides a new astrophysical laboratory to test general relativity in a strong gravitational field regimeand probe the physical processes of mass accretion and jet genesis on eventhorizon scales. Very Long Baseline Interferometry at millimeter wavelengths offers the highest spatial resolution achievable in astronomy. In recent years, mm-VLBI, represented by the Event Horizon Telescope(EHT), has made unprecedented progress towards imaging nearby supermassive black holes. The recent release of the first-ever black hole image by theEHT collaboration marks a new culmination of decades of global effort, whichprovides the first visual evidence for the existence of black holes and adirect test of general relativity in a strong field. In this talk, I willdiscuss some recent progress and future opportunities in imaging the centralengines of nearby Active Galactic Nuclei. [link]

Place: Online Zoom (Meeting ID: 966 2017 5378; Passcode: 268240)

Time: Thursday, December 31st, 4:00pm to 5:00pm