Ziri Younsi

I obtained my PhD in Astrophysics from UCL (UK) in April 2014. My thesis, “General Relativistic Radiative Transfer in Black Hole Systems”, was written under the supervision of Prof. Kinwah Wu. Since November 2014 I have been working in the relativistic Astrophysics group of Prof. Luciano Rezzolla at the Institute for Theoretical Physics (ITP) at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main.

My research is concerned primarily with calculating and analysing the emission of radiation from matter in the vicinity of compact objects, in particular (but not restricted to) black holes. Our present knowledge of black holes is inferred through radiation emitted from extremely hot material falling into the event horizon. Whilst direct imaging of a black hole is impossible since light cannot escape the event horizon, by studying its gravitational influence on nearby matter and radiation we can infer its properties. To this end I have developed a numerical general relativistic radiative transport code to calculate the emission from matter in general relativistic environments, such as the accretion flow around a Kerr black hole.

By calculating the electromagnetic emissions from a black hole by incorporating a detailed treatment of relevant radiation processes we may calculate the observed images and spectra from such systems. In so doing we are able to lay a solid foundation for the comparison of GRRT calculations with future observational missions, enabling us to constrain key physical properties and parameters.