November 4, 2025

Speaker: Ryan Chornock (UC Berkeley)

Contact Information: 

Title:  Looking for Black Holes in all the Wrong Places

Abstract: Over the last decade, large optical time-domain surveys have systematized the discovery of transient flares of emission associated with the tidal disruptions of stars by supermassive black holes. These tidal disruption events (TDEs) are rare events, but they are signposts for the presence of otherwise quiescent SMBHs and are exquisite probes of accretion physics. I will describe our ongoing work within the Zwicky Transient Facility to increase the discovery rate of TDEs. This has enabled searches for MBHs in new environments, such as dwarf galaxies and non-central locations within their host galaxies. I will highlight our recent discovery and characterization of the TDE AT 2024tvd, which revealed the presence of a wandering SMBH located 0.8 kiloparsecs from its host galaxy nucleus. I will conclude by looking forward to how we can apply lessons learned from the current generation of surveys to the imminent Legacy Survey of Space and Time with the Rubin Observatory.

Visitor's room: 123

Visit Schedule:

If you're not meeting in the visitor's office (Room 123), please indicate your office number.

Wednesday:

• 9:30 a.m.:  Jeremy Goodman

• 10:00 a.m.:  Zack Andalman

• 10:30 a.m.:  (optionally astro-coffee @ Grand Central) 

• 11:00 a.m.:  Minghao Guo

• 11:30 a.m.:  Robert Lupton (Room 25x, near the loading dock at the East end of the Peyton Hall basement)

• 12:00 p.m.: Mila Winter

• 12:30 p.m.: Wunch

• 1:00 p.m.: Wunch

• 1:30 p.m.: Philippe Yao

• 2:00 p.m.: Lena Treiber

• 2:30 p.m.: Nicholas Rui

• 3:00 p.m.: (optionally Eliot's meeting; Dome Room, 201)

• 3:30 p.m.: ("")

• 4:00 p.m.: Sylvia Biscoveanu

• 4:30 p.m.:  Yael Alush

Thursday:

• 9:30 a.m.:  

• 10:00 a.m.:  Barak Rom

• 10:30 a.m.: (optionally astro-coffee @ Grand Central)

• 11:00 a.m.:  Yoonsoo Kim

• 11:30 a.m.:  

• 12:00 p.m.: 

• 12:30 p.m.:   Eliot (127)

• 1:00 p.m.:  Allen Foster

• 1:30 p.m.:  Charlotte Ward 

• 2:00 p.m.: Peter Melchior (131)

• 2:30 p.m.: 

• 3:00 p.m.: 

• 3:30 p.m.:

• 4:00 p.m.: 

• 4:30 p.m.:

Dinner Sign-up - add your name here:

Day of week: Wednesday

1. Faculty Host: Eliot Quataert

2. Postdoc Host: Nicholas Rui

3. Zack Andalman

4. Philippe Yao

5. Mila Winter

6.  Yael Alush

7.  Minghao Guo

8.  Speaker

STUDENTS HAVE PRIORITY.

PLEASE NO MORE THAN 8 PEOPLE (it is more difficult to properly interact with the speaker in larger groups).