Colloquium: The astrophysics of black hole jets

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.© Monika Moscibrodzka (Radboud University)

The Event Horizon Telescope is a global effort to construct an Earth-sized virtual radio telescope array, with the goal to make pictures and movies of two nearby supermassive black holes.

A detailed theoretical understanding of black hole accretion is now crucial to interpret these observations. I will review our past and present efforts to model the jet launching region using first-principles numerical models of black hole magnetospheres.

These models are capable of capturing the complex dynamics of magnetic fields and their interactions with the plasma and radiation field. Understanding these processes is key for the precise determination of the black hole spins or testing the theory of gravity near EHT main targets.