The Nearest Black Holes Are Quiet (But White Dwarfs Are Not) – Tony Rodriguez
Channel: Herts Research
Date: 2024-01-24

This talk was part of the UH Centre for Astrophysics Research (CAR) 2023-2024 seminar series. For the ongoing programme, please see: https://www.herts.ac.uk/research/centres/car/seminars-and-meetings

Date: 24 January 2024
Speaker: Antonio Rodriguez – Caltech
Title: The Nearest Black Holes Are Quiet (But White Dwarfs Are Not)

Abstract: While the Milky Way is predicted to harbor around 100 million stellar-mass black holes (BHs), only about two dozen have been securely identified as such. The vast majority of such systems were identified through their powerful X-ray outbursts, which approach Eddington luminosities, but the newest two systems were identified through their gravitational influence on their companion stars using precise astrometry from Gaia. In this talk, I will show why we expected to see X-rays from at least one of these two newest BHs, and what the implications are of not having seen any X-rays from either system. In the second half of the talk, I will show successful X-ray detections — recent discoveries of accreting magnetic white dwarfs (WDs) in the X-ray. Magnetic WDs are interesting since the origin of their magnetism is uncertain, but has recently been proposed to be due to a dynamo mechanism similar to that of the Earth. I will conclude by showing that the near X-ray future is bright, with the deepest-ever all-sky X-ray survey SRG/eROSITA leading to the discovery of a wealth of new accreting compact objects.