Location: Multifunctional Hall on the 5th floor Meeting time: 2021/11/02 10:00-11:30 (CST)
Speaker: Mouyuan Sun(Xiamen University)
Why do Quasars Twinkle?
Mouyuan Sun
Abstract
Quasars, which are powered by supermassive black hole (SMBH) accretion, often show aperiodic variations across the full electromagnetic spectrum (a.k.a. quasar twinkling). The long-standing quasar UV/optical twinkling has raised serious challenges to our understanding of the SMBH accretion and mass growth (i.e., the so-called “AGN viscosity crisis” by Lawrence, 2018). In this talk, I’ll present our efforts in resolving this AGN crisis. In addition, I’ll discuss the possible future directions for quasar UV/optical twinkling studies in the era of time-domain astronomy (especially the possible synergy between CSST and LSST).
Bio
Mouyuan Sun is an associate professor in the Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University, a special researcher and doctoral supervisor supported by the Nanqiang Youth Top Talent Program of Xiamen University. In 2015, he obtained a doctorate degree in theoretical physics (astrophysics direction) from Xiamen University. Among them, he was funded by the China Scholarship Council in 2013-2015, and he was jointly trained in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University in the United States. From 2016 to 2018, he was engaged in post-doctoral research in the Department of Astronomy, University of Science and Technology of China, and was subsequently hired as a special-appointed associate researcher. From August 2019, he was selected into the Xiamen University Nanqiang Youth Top Talent Program and joined the Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University. The main research interests are active galactic nuclei (especially the light change of active galactic nuclei) and black hole astrophysics. He has published more than 50 papers in journals such as ApJ and MNRAS, and has been cited more than 1,100 times. The research work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China’s general project, the youth project and the post-doctoral fellow (first class) of China.