Physics & Astronomy Colloquium – Dr. Rodrigo Fernandez
About the event
The Department of Physics and Astronomy invites you to a colloquium featuring Dr. Rodrigo Fernandez, University of Alberta. Dr. Fernandez will present his talk, “Mass ejection, compact objects, and electromagnetic transients” via Zoom.
Meet the speaker at 3:10 p.m. – join us in welcoming the speaker and for an informal chat!
https://wsu.zoom.us/j/91067075085?pwd=RUZtZnhEVTUrcFoxM0tOL01iODRtZz09
Meeting ID: 910 6707 5085 ∙ Passcode: PhysAstro
Abstract: Mass ejection is involved in the generation of many types of electromagnetic transient, often in the presence of at least one compact stellar object. A variety of processes can cause mass to become unbound from a gravitational field, including neutrino emission or absorption, magnetic stresses, angular momentum transport, or nuclear processes. In this talk I will discuss two astrophysical situations in which non-trivial mass ejection from the vicinity of a compact object should occur: the accretion disk formed in a neutron star merger, and failed supernovae that make black holes.