PHAS Colloquia

Calculating the shadow of a black hole

by Volker Perlick (University of Bremen, Germany)

Tuesday, 3 November 2020 from to (America/Chicago)
Description
Speaker: Dr. Volker Perlick (Centre for Applied Space Technology and Microgravity, University of Bremen, Germany)

Title: Calculating the shadow of a black hole

Abstract: If a black hole is seen against a backdrop of light sources, it shows a black disc known as the "shadow" of the black hole. In several rotating black-hole spacetimes, including the Kerr spacetime as the most important example, the boundary curve of the shadow can be calculated analytically. This is also true for some spacetimes of other ultracompact objects, such as wormholes, that cast a shadow similar to a black hole. In the first part of the talk I give an overview of how these calculations are done. In the second part I will then discuss the picture of the shadow of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy M87 that was released by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration in April 2019.

About the speaker: Dissertation (1989) and Habilitation (1999) at Technical University of Berlin, Germany. Working on various aspects of general relativity and alternative theories of gravity and on the foundations of electrodynamics, in particular on gravitational lensing. Since 2010 Researcher at the Centre for Applied  Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM) at the University of Bremen, Germany. Since 2013 Privatdozent at the Faculty of Physics and Electrical Engineering of the University of Bremen, Germany.

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Join Zoom Meeting by clicking the link in the material below or
https://zoom.us/j/9952917599?pwd=MHdiOFRIRG1kVFJ2a1JjVXczVEVnUT09

Meeting ID: 995 291 7599
Passcode: PHAS

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Please also visit Department Colloquia webpage. Please find the link below more information.

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Material
Organised by Maik Reddiger/ Bill Poirier/ AST