Speaker
Riccardo Arcodia
(MIT)
Description
X-ray Quasi-Periodic Eruptions (QPEs) are high-amplitude bursts of X-ray radiation recurring every few hours and originating near the central black holes in galactic nuclei of low-mass galaxies. So far, only a handful of such events has been found. Some of the latest models suggest that these eruptions are triggered by extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), in which the secondary body interacts with the accretion flow around the primary. Since EMRIs are GW sources, this would make QPEs their electromagnetic counterparts, opening a new window to the future of multi-messenger astronomy. I will outline the basic observational properties of QPE sources and the current state of the art for their interpretation as EMRIs.
Primary author
Riccardo Arcodia
(MIT)
