Wednesday, September 23, 2020
1:30 PM - 2:20 PM
Event Type
Educational
Contact
John Sohl
801-626-7907
Department
Physics
Link
http://calendar.weber.edu/MasterCalendar/EventDetails.aspx?EventDetailId=67656
"General Relativity and Observational Signatures of Kerr Black Holes"
Presented by Delilah Gates, Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University.
Join us via Zoom:
https://weber.zoom.us/j/95767043472
Meeting ID: 957 6704 3472
or: https://tinyurl.com/PhysSeminar
Abstract:
General relativity describes spacetime as a geometry where the gravity is the curvature of spacetime. Black holes (BHs) are exotic objects that arise as a solution to Einstein's equations of general relativity. The most astrophysically relevant BH solution being the Kerr geometry--a spacetime characterized uniquely by the mass and spin of the BH. With the Event Horizon Telescope and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory having ushered in a new epoch of black hole astrophysics, we are now led to a host of new questions about BH observations: How do we know we are observing a BH? What are the mass and spin of an observed BH? In this talk, we will discuss the Kerr geometry and how one uses it to describe observational signatures that hallmark BHs.