Funded Studentships

Fast multi-wavelength variability of accreting compact objects

Black holes and neutron stars in binary systems pull matter from a companion star, forming a hot, accretion disc and often launching powerful jets of material at close to the speed of light. These systems flicker rapidly, with their brightness changing on timescales of less than a second. This variability carries information about regions far too small to image directly. This project will use observations taken at the same time in X-rays, optical and infrared light, with some of the world's leading space- and ground-based telescopes, to track how these flickers travel through the system. Using time-series analysis and modelling, the student will measure how fast the jets move, how close the disc reaches to the central object, and how strong the magnetic fields are.