TITANs
TITANs
MILLENNIUM NUCLEUS ON TRANSVERSAL RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY TO EXPLORE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES
Goals
TITANS aims to improve our understanding of single and binary supermassive black holes. We aim to, for the first time, determine the demographics of innermost structures around single and binary supermassive black holes via Event Horizon Telescope imaging and variabililty studies with the Zwicky Transient Facility. Our simulations aim to understand the growth and emission spectra of single and binary supermassive black holes. With funding of ~2 million US$ over six years (2020-2026) Nucleo Milenio projects target focussed research topics and are funded by Chile’s National Agency for Investigation and Development (ANID).
TITANS will focus on:
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- Black hole demographics via studies of the innermost environments (accretion inflows, jet bases, and black hole shadows) of a sample of black holes using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)
- Growth of black holes over cosmic time (via observations and simulations), and identification of populations in the extreme limits of current parameter space
- Binary black holes in their gravitational wave emitting phase, (via theory and simulations followed by EHT observations)
Our technology component is focussed on supporting the next generation upgrade of the EHT, site testing and characterization, atmospheric studies related to water vapor, and high bandwidth satellite communication from Antarctica.
Latest News
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2022: International award for TITANS researcher Stefano Bovino
The German Astronomical Society (AG) has awarded Dr. Stefano Bovino, from The Nucleus Millenium TITANS, and Dr. Tommaso Grassi, from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, with the Astrophysical Software Award for the development of the astrochemistry package KROME.KROME is an open-source code that was developed to include chemistry and thermal processes in numerical hydrodynamical simulations to properly describe the thermal evolution of gas. It is a key tool to study, among the others, star-forming regions, galaxy evolution, black hole formation, complex chemical pathways, as well as to compare simulations with observational data of atomic or molecular lines. KROME can model any chemical network for which the reaction rates are known and includes modules to incorporate dust physics. The development of KROME has expanded the possibilities for modelling thermochemistry in astrophysical simulations and has contributed to significant advances in astrophysical knowledge and to the education of students and postdocs in astrochemistry.
Dr. Bovino says “with KROME we run dynamic simulations to understand the physics of different regions of space. Normally, what one wants to do is include the thermodynamics part, to know how both the gas temperature and the chemistry of the interstellar medium are regulated and evolved, so we can compare the theoretical results with the observations”.
Since 2011 there has been five KROME schools and more than 200 participants from all over the world.
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