SEMINAR

[E.Brancaccio_ICTP/UNESCO]

SEMINAR 20 March 2015 09:00 - 10:00

Astrophysical Plasmas

Prof.Ehud Behar (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)

Venue: Budinich Lecture Room- ICTP Leonardo da Vinci Building


The seminar will describe the state of the art instrumentation for X-ray 
spectroscopy on board satellites, both present and future. It will then 
demonstrate some exquisite diagnostics of astrophysical plasmas. A few 
examples of which are electron temperature measurements of active-galaxy 
winds from their narrow radiative recombination continua, and the 
spectroscopic detection of a shock contact discontinuity in a planetary 
nebula based on the same spectral feature. We will then highlight 
absorption measurements of outflows from supermassive black holes shined 
on by gas falling into the black hole. These spectroscopic diagnostics 
have been proven useful to constrain the physics of the outflowing 
plasma, even when no complementary spatial information is available. 
Finally, some relevant laboratory experiments will be described, as well 
as ways to harness high quality laboratory measurements to astrophysical 
diagnostics.