Description
Black-Hole Jets in the Universe
It is now widely believed that supermassive black holes reside at the
centers of most galaxies. They have masses of millions to billions times
the mass of the sun and the violent physical processes in their
immediate vicinity give rise to an immense power output. In active
galactic nuclei, a small region around the black hole can easily
outshine the whole host galaxy and may produce powerful collimated
outflows of relativistic plasma, the so-called jets, which are
associated with bright radio and gamma-ray emission. High-resolution
radio observations allow us to image directly the innermost regions of
AGN jets and to probe the extreme physical environment of supermassive
black holes. Future observations at sub-mm wavelengths may even reveal
the shadows of the black hole event horizons themselves. Complementary
multiwavelength observations probe the accretion flow near the event
horizon and measure the broadband spectral-energy distribution, which
can be modeled to reveal how black holes form jets. In this course, we
will discuss the relevant underlying physical processes and observations
that lead to an understanding of the immediate vicinity of supermassive
black holes and their creatures.
