Important notice
The deadline for abstract registration is November 14, 2019
Overview
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) are unique tools for understanding the nature of astrophysical black holes and their role in the Universe. A star approaching a supermassive black hole (SMBH) will be ripped apart at the tidal disruption radius, where the SMBH tidal field dominates over the self-gravity of the star. After the star is disrupted, the subsequent super-Eddington fallback of stellar debris onto the SMBH produces a characteristic flare lasting several months. There are several scientific motivations for studying TDEs: First, TDEs are unparalleled probes of quiescent SMBHs in the centers of inactive galaxies too distant (more than ~30 Mpc) to be identified/characterized by observations of stellar motion. Second, TDEs provide a good opportunity to find intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), merging binary IMBHs/SMBHs, and isolated, recoiling IMBHs/SMBHs. Finally, TDEs provide a natural laboratory to test general relativistic effects; e.g., the imprint of the event horizon (via the "Hills mass") in the mass distribution of TDE host galaxies, and multi-messenger gravitational/electromagnetic radiation produced when a white dwarf is disrupted by an IMBH.
Although the number of TDE candidates has grown substantially in the last decade, we have still observed fewer than 100 events. Broadly speaking, two main classes of TDE candidates have been observed: high-energy TDEs, which emit non-thermal radiation from a relativistic, collimated jet, and thermal TDEs, which emit as (multi-color) blackbodies in the optical, UV, and soft X-ray. It remains unclear what "hidden variable" is the key requirement for launching a powerful jet. Further diversity of thermal TDEs has been recently unveiled by multi-wavelength observations of TDE light curves, and their spectral features. In addition, multi-messenger observations of TDEs are possible in the near future thanks to the rapid progress of gravitational wave and cosmic-ray/neutrino astronomy. Better theoretical models are urgently needed to keep pace with the flood of observational progress on TDEs.
In this workshop, we invite young to established career scientists with demonstrated leadership in TDEs, aiming to foster collaboration on a global scale. We focus our attention on GR effects in TDE (hydro)dynamics with the goal of making predictive models that can be compared to existing and future TDE observations. From 1/14 to 1/16, we will organize a three-day conference for discussing the interplay between TDE theory and observations, with additional key observational speakers.
Invited Speakers (updated on 12/Nov, 2019)
Roseanne Cheng (LANL)
Jane Dai (HKU)
Mike Kesden (UTD)
Kotarou Kyutoku (Kyoto U)
Shuo Li (NAOC/CAS)
Wenbin Lu (Caltech)
Bing Zhang (UNLV/YITP)
Associated Conference
"Tidal Disruption in Kyoto: Confronting Theory with Observations"
Molecule-type workshop SOC and LOC
Kimitake Hayasaki (CBNU)
Nicholas Stone (Hebrew U)
Kunihito Ioka (YITP)
Ryo Yamazaki (AGU)
Naoki Seto (Kyoto U)
Takahiro Tanaka (Kyoto U/YITP)
Abraham Loeb (Harvard U/CfA/BHI)