APEC Seminar (Astronomy - Particle Physics - Experimental Physics - Cosmology)

Speaker: Frederico Garcia (Institute of Radioastronomy, Argentina)
Title: Observable properties of accretion disks in Kerr spacetimes
Date (JST): Thu, Jan 12, 2017, 13:30 - 14:30
Place: Seminar Room A
Abstract: In General Relativity, black holes are usually described by the Kerr metric. According to Penrose's Cosmic Censorship Conjecture (CCC), curvature singularities are always hidden behind an event horizon. Through this talk, we will explore the effects caused by an external magnetic field on observable properties of accretion disks in Kerr spacetimes with and without horizons. We will use a ray-tracing algorithm to calculate X-ray thermal spectra and relativistic emission-line profiles as well as light curves and power spectra of hot spots on thin accretion disks, considering uniform and dipolar magnetic field configurations, which can be exploited to probe the CCC and to estimate the existence and global geometry of magnetic fields around compact objects in X-ray binaries.