AGN HBT OMG

by Neal Dalal (Perimeter Institute)

Friday 23 May 2025, 10:00 → 11:00 Asia/Shanghai

Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/N6F-N600 - Lecture Room (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute)

Host: Zhen Pan

Join Tencent Meeting：https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/07OqyAcTYvXp

Meeting ID: 350371312 (no password）

 

Abstract:

I’ll discuss an old technique called intensity interferometry, pioneered by Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) that allows us to achieve sub-microarcsecond angular resolution using ordinary ground-based optical telescopes observing visible light.  This technique is best suited for compact, bright sources, and I will discuss applications of intensity interferometry observations of bright, supermassive black holes called active galactic nuclei (AGN).  I’ll describe a few possible applications, like measuring the Hubble constant H0 and probing the innermost structure of AGN accretion disks.

Biography:

Neal Dalal got PhD from UCSD in 2002, postdocs at IAS and CITA, then faculty at University of Illinois before moving to Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in 2017.