Athena X-ray Advances: ASST & ACO Science Webinars

The third webinar of the  “Athena X-ray Advances: ASST & ACO Science Webinars” will take place on the 16th of March at 15 CET.  Margherita Giustini will give the webinar entitled: Unexpected signals in the X-ray sky: quasi-periodic eruptions from galactic nuclei.

Abstract: Quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) are a new kind of cosmic signal brightening up the X-ray sky. Discovered serendipitously at the end of 2018 and observed in the nuclei of four galaxies so far, QPEs are intense and rapid bursts of soft X-ray emission over a stable level of quiescence, which repeat quasi-periodically every few hours. While the luminosity emitted and the time scales involved imply a link to non-stationary accretion onto massive black holes, the physical interpretation of this new cosmic phenomenon is still far from clear. During this webinar, I will summarize the story of the discovery of X-ray QPEs and the progress made during the three years elapsed from their discovery, including both observational results and their theoretical interpretation. I will conclude by presenting what can be expected during the Athena era in terms of QPE science, which is quite broad: QPEs are relevant to low-mass galaxy evolution, tidal disruption events, the structure of active galactic nuclei; and might also provide constraints on the black hole spin and be the electromagnetic counterpart of gravitational waves detected from space, if due to extreme mass ratio inspirals.

The webinar connection details are:

https://zoom.us/j/96025387599?pwd=Z2RuODlkWWVzbElyQkU4eDVhcGxQQT09 (Meeting ID: 96025387599. Passcode: 761750).
 

Further information, including the code of conduct, is accessible on the dedicated website.