Project description
Innovative computational paradigm sheds light on tidal disruption events
Detection and analysis of cosmic events requires complex signal processing, in turn requiring accurate simulations to generate knowledge. Simulation of tidal disruption events (TDEs) has not been possible. TDEs occur when a star passes too close to a massive black hole at the centre of its galaxy. As the massive gravitational pull begins to pull the star apart, some material is accreted and some is ejected, creating a sudden burst of luminosity. The ERC-funded Unleash-TDEs project aims to divide the evolution into interconnected phases, enabling the first computational paradigm for TDE emission based on first-principles simulations. It will support a TDE analysis toolkit, shedding light on important unanswered questions in astrophysics.
Objective
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) have been known for decades as unique probes of otherwise quiescent supermassive black holes and their environment, in a mass range inaccessible by any other techniques. However, fulfilling this potential has so far been hindered by a crucial lack of understanding of the physics causing the emission. My program will solve this theoretical bottleneck and unleash the predictive power of TDEs at the dawn of an observational golden era provided by the Rubin Observatory.
A TDE occurs when a star is disrupted by a black hole, after which the stellar debris fuels the compact object, generating the detectable signal. While characterizing this emission has been prevented by the impossibility of simulating the entire gas evolution, I am pioneering a new computational approach that solves this long-standing impediment by dividing the evolution into interconnected phases. Relying on this technique, I will deliver the first paradigm for the TDE emission based on first-principles simulations.
Using this new knowledge, I will build theoretical lightcurves that directly depend on astrophysical system parameters, namely the black hole and stellar properties, and develop the first physically sound analysis toolkit for detected TDEs, which statistically compares these lightcurves to observed ones to infer system parameters. Applying this toolkit to the wealth of upcoming TDE detections, I will shed new light on some of the most pressing mysteries in astrophysics, including the formation and growth of supermassive black holes, the properties and interactions between the stars orbiting them, and the processes leading to relativistic jets and neutrino production.
My ambitious research program is designed to capitalize on the observational revolution brought about by the Rubin Observatory, setting the foundations for TDE science in the decade to come with far-reaching implications across fields from galaxy evolution to high-energy astrophysics.
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-STG
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B15 2TT Birmingham
United Kingdom
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