Oral Presentation
Understanding How a Black Hole Feeds: Multi-wavelength Observations of Sgr A*
Presenter: Giovanni Fazio (CfA)
The center of the Milky Way galaxy offers the closest opportunity for studying accretion onto a supermassive black hole. Fluctuations from Sgr A* are detected across the electromagnetic spectrum and may originate in the accretion flow near the event horizon. Recent general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic (GRMD) models indicate that variability is produced by a tilted inner disk or lensing by the black hole of a bright spot in the accretion flow, and that the amplitude of flaring can distinguish between strong mean magnetization accretion and weak magnetization models. The variety of multi-wavelength behaviors already observed by Chandra/Spitzer/SMA have demonstrated the need for a significant increase of simultaneous X-ray/infrared/submm flare observations to characterize the range of broadband flux ratios, timing behavior and energetics of the flares to determine how they help to regulate the accretion flow near the event horizon. The current status of observations will be reviewed and plans for the remaining decade will be presented. In the next decade the SMA, in conjunction with ALMA, JWST, WFIRST, Euclid, Chandra, ATHENA, and large ground-based telescopes, can continue to play an important role in understanding how a black hole feeds.
G. G. Fazio, M. Ashby, M. Gurwell, J. Hora, H. Smith, S. Willner (CfA); E. Becklin (Sofia Science Center); A. Ghez, L. Meyer, M. Morris, G. Witzel (UCLA); F. Baganoff (MIT); D. Haggard (McGill); D. Marrone (Arizona); C. Gammie (Illionois); S. Carey, J. Ingalls, W. Glaccum (IPAC/Cal Tech)
asiaa.sinica.edu.tw