Dr. John Ruan, Department of Physics and Astronomy Bishop's University Abstract: The proliferation of wide-field multi-epoch imaging surveys has now opened a new window to the time-domain for discovery of new and rare time-variable phenomena. From these surveys, the recent discovery of ‘changing-look’ quasars poses potential challenges to our understanding of accretion onto supermassive black … Continue reading Physics Seminar: The Origin and Utility of Changing-Look Quasars →

Professor Sarah Gallagher, Science Advisor to the President of the Canadian Space Agency University of Western At cosmic noon, when the universe was about a third to a half its present age, both galaxies and their central, supermassive black holes went through phases of explosive growth when stars were formed in abundance and gas falling … Continue reading Physics Seminar: Windy Quasar Blows Away the Competition →

Professor Gabor Kunstatter, Department of Physics The University of Winnipeg Abstract: In February of 2016, LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves emitted by the merger of two massive black holes, providing astounding confirmation of the validity in the strong field region of Einstein's theory of gravity as well as the first direct evidence for … Continue reading Physics Seminar – Lost Horizons: Dynamics of Regular Black Hole Formation and Evaporation →