Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title：X-ray Variability of Tidal Disruption Events

Speaker:Yanan Wang (NAOC)

Time：3:00 pm Sep. 11th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：935-4851-5097 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

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.

CV：

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.