Visiting Chair from the Collège de France – Professor Francoise Combes
Program
Events
Seminar: Black Holes and Active Galaxy Nuclei
Tuesday, 13 February 2024
Time: 14:30
Room A102
Polo Ferrari 1
Via Sommarive 5 - 38123 Povo
Super-massive black holes are the central engine of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and quasars, the most energetic and compact objects in the Universe. Since their identification in the 1960's, much has been learned about their nature and formation, from multi-wavelength (radio to gamma-rays) and multi-messenger observations (neutrinos, cosmic rays, gravitational waves). Recent works at high spatial resolution have revealed the shadow of the black holes, their accretion disk, and how the relativistic jets are launched. There will be a description of the mechanisms that feed the black holes, and how, when they are too greedy, the black holes can reject their food, and push the gas out of galaxies, preventing star formation.
Colloquium: The Puzzle of Dark Matter
Wednesday, 14 February 2024
Time: 14:00
Room A207
Polo Ferrari 1
Via Sommarive 5 - 38123 Povo
To request information for on-line participation, write to: df.supportstaff [at] unitn.it
Doctoral students from the PhD Program in Physics are required to attend in person.
The problem of invisible matter in the Universe, on the scale of galaxies, large structures, and actually global content, is a multi-faceted enigma. Since 1985, we have known that this matter is composed of exotic particles, beyond the standard model. The main candidate is neutralino, the most stable neutral particle in the hierarchy of super-symmetric particles. However, supersymmetry does not appear as expected in the CERN-LHC accelerator. Many other models have flowered in recent years and the main ones will be described: axions, superfluid matter, or Bose-Einstein condensate, with sterile neutrinos, up to modified gravity.
All lectures will be held in English.
Françoise Combes is a professor at Collège de France, chair of “Galaxies and cosmology”, and vice-president of the Academy of Sciences. She works at the Paris Observatory on the formation and evolution of
galaxies, their dynamics and their co-evolution with supermassive black holes, as well as on models of dark matter. She has received several awards, including the CNRS Gold Medal (2020), the international L'Oreal-Unesco award
for Women in Science (2021) or the Lise Meitner Prize from Göteborg (Sweden, 2017). She was elected member of the European Academy (2009) and international member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA, 2023).
Contact Information:
Department of Physics
Via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo (TN)
tel. 0461.281504
e-mail: df.supportstaff [at] unitn.it
Academic Coordinator
Massimiliano Rinaldi
Professor – Department of Physics
tel. 0461.28 281577
e-mail: massimiliano.rinaldi [at] unitn.it