X-ray Variability of Tidal Disruption Events

by Yanan Wang

Wednesday 10 Sept 2025, 14:00 → 15:00 Asia/Shanghai

Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/N6F-N601 - Meeting Room (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute)

Host: Zhen Pan
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Abstract:

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are extraordinary transients that offer valuable insights into massive black holes and their nuclear environments. Their rapid evolution provides a rare opportunity to observe accretion and ejection processes around otherwise dormant black holes on humanly accessible timescales. While classical models predict a smooth, monotonic decline in emission, many TDEs display complex X-ray behavior across a wide range of timescales, including rapid dimming, quasi-periodic oscillations/eruptions, and flaring episodes. Such variability offers a unique window into the innermost regions of the accretion flow and, in particular, provides a novel avenue to probe black hole spin. This talk reviews recent advances in TDE research, with a focus on the implications of their X-ray variability.

Biography:

Dr. Yanan Wang received her PhD from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in 2018. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Strasbourg Observatory (2019-2020) and held a Royal Society Newton International Fellowship at the University of Southampton (2020-2022). Since May 2023, she has been a faculty member at the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on multi-wavelength observations of stellar-mass and supermassive black holes.