Wine and Cheese Fall 2024

This page records the schedule, titles and abstracts of the JHU/STScI CAS Astrophysics Wine & Cheese Series in Fall 2024.

Wine and Cheese sessions with one speaker will have a 50 minute talk with 10 minutes for questions. Sessions with two speakers will have two 25 minute talks, each with 5 minutes for questions.

9 September

John Soltis (JHU)

Direct Estimation of Galaxy Cluster Mass Accretion Rate using Machine Learning
Galaxy cluster mass abundances provide an important cosmological constraint. Mass estimates, however, are biased by galaxy cluster dynamical state. The dynamical state, the intensity of physical disturbance in the galaxy cluster, is a direct result of its mass accretion rate. I will present a machine learning model for directly constraining the mass accretion rate of galaxy clusters from only X-ray and thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich observations. Furthermore, I will discuss the different machine learning interpretability methods we employ to better understand the model, and the conclusions we draw from them.

Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern)

Highlights of the MeerKAT Radio Survey of the Galactic Center
It has been 40 years since the magnetized radio filaments were first reported toward the Galactic center (GC), the first hint of an energetic activity in this region. Since then, a large number of synchrotron emitting filaments has been discovered in this high cosmic-ray pressure environment. In particular, the recent MeerKAT survey, which has been a gold mine in the study of the extreme environment of the GC, has increased the number of filaments by an order of magnitude. In this talk, I will discuss the statistical properties of the GC filaments, the comparison of the intracluster medium (ICM) and GC filaments, models of these enigmatic objects and the association of a milli-second pulsar powering a nonthermal radio filament near the magnetized Snake filament.

16 September

Priyanka Sarmah (Tsing Hua U)

Origin of a Strong Broadband 21 cm Cosmological Signal from Dark Matter Spin-Flip Interactions
We explore a novel mechanism, where dark matter spin-flip interactions with electrons through a light axial-vector mediator could directly induce a 21 cm absorption signal which is characteristically different from the expected absorption features in the standard cosmology and in models with excess gas cooling, which have been broached to explain the recently observed anomalous signal in the EDGES experiment. We find generically that our model predicts a strong,broadband absorption signal extending from frequencies as low as 1.4 MHz (z~1000), from early in the cosmic dark ages where no conventional signal is expected, all the way up to higher frequencies where star formation and X-ray heating effects are expected to terminate the absorption signal. We find a rich set of spectral features that could be probed in current and future experiments looking for the global 21 cm signal. Large swathes of our model parameter space of interest are safe from existing particle physics constraints, however future searches for short range spin-dependent forces between electrons on the millimeter to nanometer scale have the potential to discover the light mediator responsible for our predicted signal.

23 September

Chris Nagele (JHU)

Simulating Electromagnetic Signals from SBH Formation and Accretion onto Binary SMBH
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will have the capacity to observe supermassive black hole binary mergers, even at high redshift. These observations will help determine much more precisely the mass function and binary fraction of supermassive black holes over cosmic time. Current observatories, however, can also be utilized to better understand the massive black hole population. In this talk, I will highlight two examples of this. The first centers around the origin of massive black holes at high redshift, namely modeling of transients associated with the birth of these massive black holes, these transients being observable to current and upcoming near infrared surveys. The second focuses on x-ray and optical variability of supermassive black hole binaries fed by a circumbinary accretion disk. In both cases, I will describe general relativistic hydrodynamical simulations of these systems and post processing for relevant observables.

Laura Flagg (JHU)

The Dispersal of Gas in Circumstellar Disks Based on Observations of H_2 in the FUV
Planets form in circumstellar disks. However, the main component of these disks, H_2, is extremely hard to detect. We have developed a new technique that increases our sensitivity to warm H_2 emission in medium resolution FUV spectra taken with HST using COS or STIS by better than a factor of 10. With this new technique, we detect H_2 in the spectra of TWA 7, a ~9 Myr M2 star with a cold debris disk but no clear signs of accretion and show that it likely comes from the debris disk itself, although closer in where the disk is relatively warm. We discuss detections of H_2 from stars without warm dust in Upper Sco. These detections of H_2 in older debris disk systems imply that H_2 may last longer than previous evidence had indicated. We also talk about the confusing presence of H_2 in the AU Mic system and what we learned about the star and its disk from analyzing it.