15 October 2020 Tekin Dereli & Fethi M. Ramazanoglu

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KOÇ UNIVERSITY PHYSICS SEMINAR
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Speaker: Tekin Dereli & Fethi M. Ramazanoglu
Koc University
Title: 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics
Date: October 15, 2020
Time: 18:00 (Thursday)
Zoom info: Join Zoom Meeting
https://kocun.zoom.us/j/95631590684

Meeting ID: 956 3159 0684
Passcode: 150430

web: https://physics-seminars.ku.edu.tr/

Abstract:

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was divided, one half awarded to Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity”, the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy.”

Black holes do not emit any light as they are theoretically predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Then, how can we prove that they actually exist in our universe without seeing them? Genzel and Ghez were able to show the existence of a black hole right here at the center of our own galaxy using its gravitational influence on other nearby astrophysical objects. Aside from its existence, we know that this black hole’s mass is an astounding 4 million times greater than that of the Sun, and it is actually a modest example of supermassive black holes that are located at the centers of many galaxies. We will summarize what observations were used to investigate this black hole, and why they were so challenging that the researchers deserved a Nobel Prize. We will also discuss the general properties of supermassive black holes and future plans to examine them such as taking their photographs and observing their gravitational wave signals.

Short Bio:

Tekin Dereli is a mathematical physicist who joined the Science Faculty at Koc University in 2001. His research interests focus on quantum field theories, gravity and gauge models of fundamental particles and their interactions. His published work includes one of the earliest paper on higher dimensional cosmology. Tekin Dereli received the TUBITAK Science Prize, Prof.Mustafa Parlar Foundation Science Prize and Sedat Simavi Foundation Science Prize. He is an elected member of TUBA and Science Academy.

Fethi Mübin Ramazanoğlu is a gravitational physicist. He obtained his PhD from Princeton University in 2012. After postdoctoral positions at Princeton and University of Cambridge, he joined Koc University as an assistant professor in 2016. His main research interests are numerical general relativity and compact object astrophysics.