Time-domain Analysis to study the Life-cycle and Evolution of Supermassive black holes
The TALES Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctorate Network is a consortium of 10 astrophysics research groups, 8 industrial and 3 academic partners spread across Europe that aims to study the feeding and feedback cycle of supermassive black holes. The 11 TALES doctorate candidates will (i) leverage time-domain astronomy observations from state-of-the-art facilities to map the environment in the close vicinity of supermassive black holes, (ii) use novel analysis methods from the discipline of data science to maximise the information gain from the observations and (iii) develop new theories and models to interpret the data and learn about the physics of the life-cycle of black holes at the centres of galaxies. Parallel to the core research activities above, TALES is implementing an ambitious training programme on both technical and complementary skills that is tailored to the needs of the doctorate candidates and includes secondments to industrial and/or academic partners as well as specialised lectures and science communication events.
The TALES astrophysical research is organised in 4 complementary thematic areas on the feeding and feedback cycle of supermassive black holes as shown below.
Innermost accretion flow
The Innermost Accretion Flow is an extreme environment where relativistic effects are the strongest, and the interplay between inflowing matter, the corona, disk, and outflows defines how the black hole grows and affects its surroundings…
Accretion
disk
The Accretion disk in AGNs is a multi-temperature/multi-phase structure that funnels material from large scales, through the innermost flow, onto the black hole…
Outflows and feedback
AGN winds ionised by the accretion disk and X-ray corona, may carry and deposit sufficient energy and metals to the interstellar medium, thereby affecting the evolution of galaxies. However, the observational evidence and associated modelling are not yet conclusive….
New discovery
space
The disruptions of stars in the tidal fields of supermassive black holes provide information on the physics of the innermost accretion flow, the formation of accretion disks and the launch mechanisms of outflows in real-time and in a manner that is complementary to studies of Active Galactic Nuclei…
