The Paradoxes of Massive Black Holes: A Case Study in the Milky Way

Coordinators: Andrea Ghez, Sera Markoff, Eliot Quataert

This conference will be focused on the twin puzzles of(1) star formation and the young stellar population in the central parsec of the Galactic Center, and(2) the "luminous" source Sagittarius A* associated with the massive black hole in the Galactic Center. Recent observations have revealed many surprising results on massive stars in the central part of our Galaxy, especially in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole. How these stars form and survive so close to a massive black hole is a major unsolved mystery. Equally remarkable are the observational results on radiation from gas in the vicinity of the massive black hole, including rapid IR and X-ray flaring. The Galactic Center is also one of the most important testing grounds for theoretical models of gas dynamics in the vicinity of black holes. Our goal is to bring together scientists with expertise in the Galactic Center, star formation and stellar dynamics, and accretion disks and jets to discuss these results. We expect a very exciting conference, with adequate time for discussions and debate of the forefront issues in the field.

Meetings will run from ~ 9-5:30 each day
Confirmed Speakers Include:

Robin Herrnstein: Dynamics of Dense Gas in the Central 2 pc of the Galaxy
Nick Scoville: Tidally stable CND clouds
Frank Eisenhauer: SINFONI in the Galactic Center: young stars and IR flares in the central light month
Andrea Ghez: Stellar Dynamics from Keck
Mike Muno: Evidence for a Swarm of Black Holes near Srg A*
Tod Lauer: The centers of M32+-1
Francisco Najarro: Massive Stars and Metallicity at the Galactic Center
Milos Milosavljevic: Could the Galactic center stars have formed in situ?
Sergei Nayakshin: Star formation in Sgr A* in the past and the present day wind accretion
Yuri Levin: IMBH vs Accretion Disc: Evidence From Stellar Orbits.
Simon-Portegies Zwart: Black Hole Immigrants Welcome in the Galactic Center
Sungsoo Kim: Dynamical Friction on Star Clusters near the Galactic Center
Tal Alexander: Mass segregation in the Galactic Center
Fred Rasio: Formation of IMBH and young stars near the Galactic center
Andy Gould: Sgr A* Binary Disruptions and the Shape of the Outer Halo
Fred Baganoff: X-ray Properties of Sgr A* Flares
Delphine Porquet: Review of the XMM-Newton monitoring of the X-ray activity of SgrA*
Felix Aharonian: TeV gamma Rays from the Galactic Center
Farad Yusef-Zadah: A Coordinated Multi-wavelength Experiment to Observe the Variability of SgrA*
Andreas Eckart: The NIR/X-ray variable source SgrA* and its immediate environment
Mark Morris: Variable Infrared Emission from the Galactic Black Hole
Geoff Bower: The Main Event: Probing Accretion and Outflow in Sgr A* with Radio and Millimeter Wavelength Interferometry
Dan Marrone: Observations of SgrA* at 1.3, 0.9 and 0.5 mm with the SMA
Mark Reid: The Motion of Sgr A*
Shep Doeleman: Getting to the Event Horizon: High Frequency VLBI of SgrA*
Luis Ho: Extragalactic Analogs of Sgr A*
Heino Falcke: Sgr A* in the Radio: a Jet Like all the Others
Sera Markoff: Models for Sgr A* in the context of other low-luminosity accreting black holes
Ramesh Narayan: Radiatively Inefficient Accretion Flow Models of Sgr A*
Dave Meier: Magnetically-Dominated Accretion Flows in Sgr A: Highly Inefficient Accretion with Rapid Flaring
Chris Matzner: Black hole accretion of nonradiative magnetized gas
Charles Gammie: Numerical Models of Accretion Flows Onto Black Holes
Eliot Quataert: Models of Accretion Flows in Kinetic Theory
Jim Miller: Particle Acceleration in Solar Flares