11 October 2012

Speaker: Jimmy Irwin (U.Alabama)

Title:A Deep Chandra Look at the Bondi Region of the Supermassive Black Hole in NGC3115

Abstract:The accretion mechanism of quiescent supermassive black holes is still the topic of considerable controversy. It is currently unknown whether the extremely low luminosities of Sag A* as well as many other galaxies is due to matter flowing into the black hole releasing very little radiation, or if most matter flowing into the Bondi region of the black hole is unable to make it to near the event horizon. Determining the temperature and especially the density profiles of gas within the Bondi region of a black hole places powerful constraints on the accretion mechanism in very low L_X black holes. Here, I present our ongoing analysis of the hot gas within the Bondi region of the >1 billion solar mass black hole at the center of the S0 galaxy NGC3115 with the 1 Msec Chandra X-ray Visionary Project observation of NGC3115. I will also discuss the low-mass X-ray binary population of this galaxy.

Video of the Presentation (Talks can be viewed with RealPlayer. Free download is available from www.real.com )