TAPIR Seminar

In person: 370 Cahill. To Join via Zoom: 868 5298 8404

ABSTRACT: Numerical simulations are crucial to our understanding of how black holes are birthed from massive stars, grow by consuming stars and accreting matter, and drive jets and winds. However, even with dramatic computational advancements, we are limited in our ability to capture the full scope of these complex physical processes. The tendency to assume idealized initial conditions at the cost of physical accuracy limits our ability to contextualize results from numerical experiments. In this talk, I will explore the consequences of initial conditions in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations covering a range of black-hole-related phenomena, including collapsars, kilonovae, gamma-ray bursts, and tidal disruption events. I hope to motivate the importance of continued efforts to develop more self-consistent end-to-end models of these events and the challenges of doing so.