[phas-undergrad] Special Physics Colloquium Monday

[Kurtis Williams]

Hello everybody,

Monday we are being visited by one of the candidates for our tenure-track hire, Dr. Shuo Zhang.  Colloquium will start at 4:10 in Room 123.  I realize its an odd place and time, but please come if you are able.

Cheers,
Dr. Williams

Special Colloquium
Department of Physics & Astronomy, TAMU-Commerce
MONDAY Nov 5, 4:10-5:00 PM in Science Building 123
(Note special date and room)
Coffee and cookies will be served at 4:00 PM

Supermassive Black Holes and Exotic Physics
In Galactic Nuclei
Dr. Shuo Zhang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research

Dr. Zhang earned a BS in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 2010.  She completed her PhD in physics at Columbia University in 2016.  Dr. Zhang is currently the Heising-Simons postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Kavli Institute of Astrophysics and Space Research in Boston.



More information about Dr. Zhang  can be found at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__space.mit.edu_people_zhang-2Dshuo&d=DwIGaQ&c=oqyuZuih6ykib6aKiBq22_bich4AVfYGoLertJN0bEc&r=zR45CGBLdduIV4jIB6WGZAn8tVItG8Qcck8cmBEBvAA&m=JGqt7e8gcnoY1r9ISQSg83U1XFKwpV3HtX1FrbI2ZxY&s=TKZzEMzKj0cofb5EauZ8MuOgt1jbXV9CuIdmt0pj92M&e=


Abstract

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) may spend the majority of their lives accreting at low rates through radiatively inefficient, advection-dominated accretion flow. Therefore, low-luminosity SMBHs could greatly outnumber their more active cousins, active galactic nuclei, thus are essential for our understanding of SMBH activity cycles and their relationship to galaxy evolution. In particular, SMBHs harbored in local galaxies are found to be remarkably under-luminous. The best studied under-luminous SMBH is the closest such object to Earth, Sagittarius A*, located in the nucleus of our Milky Way galaxy. In this talk, I will discuss how I have been probing the outburst history of Sagittarius A* and how I plan to apply these techniques to other SMBHs in nearby galaxies such as Andromeda. The Galactic nucleus of the Milky Way galaxy also serves as an ideal lab to probe exotic physics. I would like to introduce a new research direction of mine, to probe Galactic cosmic-rays at MeV through PeV energy scales. This research has far-reaching implications for a range of fields of study: the origin of Galactic cosmic-rays, particle acceleration mechanisms and dark matter searches, aiming to eventually answer the question whether Galactic cosmic-rays are from normal astrophysical sources or of more exotic origin such as dark matter annihilation.

Dr. Kurtis A. Williams
Associate Professor
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Texas A&M University-Commerce
kurtis.williams at tamuc.edu<mailto:kurtis.williams at tamuc.edu>
(903) 886-5516

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