Resolving black holes in space and time

Séminaire IPAG de Jason Dexter (MPE Garching), jeudi 14 juin 2018 à 11h00, salle Manuel Forestini IPAG

Two long baseline interferometry experiments operating at millimeter and near-infrared wavelengths provide an unprecedented look at accretion and outflows in the immediate vicinity of massive black holes. In the brightest quasars, the VLTI GRAVITY instrument can now be used to study the structure and dynamics of the broad emission line region in spectro-interferometry. In the Galactic center, GRAVITY and the global Event Horizon Telescope array resolve event horizon scales in both space and time. I will discuss early science results and the prospects of these experiments, focusing on the predicted appearance of resolved gas near black holes.