NOTEZ LE CHANGEMENT DE LOCAL ET D'HEURE : D-460, 12H30
Fade to Black: The Origin of Changing-Look Quasars

John Ruan
McGill University


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 holes. In this phenomenon, luminous quasars suddenly fade into quiescent galaxies over timescales of just a few years, a factor of 10000 faster than expected. I will examine different explanations for the origin of changing-look quasars, and discuss their incredible usefulness in probing accretion physics, supermassive black hole feedback, and galaxy evolution over cosmic time.

Date: Thursday, 21 September 2017
Time: 12:30
Where: Université de Montréal
  Pavillon Roger-Gaudry, Local D-460
Contact: Björn Benneke