You are invited to the Leverhulme Lecture with visiting Professor Tomaso Belloni.
Binary systems containing a black hole or a neutron star offer the best possibility to test prediction of General Relativity in the strong field regime. The plasma stripped from the non-degenerate companion star reaches the space time in the immediate vicinity of the compact object and releases strong X-ray emissions. The spectral and variability properties of this emission contain the signatures of predicted effects such as the presence of an innermost stable orbit and black hole spin.
Professor Tomaso Belloni discusses the current observational status with particular emphasis onto sub-second time variability, which constitutes the most direct measurement of the properties of the plasma accreting onto a collapsed star.
Date: 27 March
Time: 4pm
Location: Physics Lecture Theatre C (building 46)
Booking not necessary – just turn up!