ABSTRACT

About 10% of accreting supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies are capable of launching extreme relativistic jets. These AGNs and their jets have been studied for decades, from radio up to gamma-rays. However, many open questions still remain about the processes powering these powerful monsters. When, in the history of time, were the most luminous jets more numerous, and what is their connection with fast supermassive black-holes growth in the early universe? Are the radiating particles leptons or hadrons? Is the so-called 'blazar sequence' real or just a selection effect? In this talk, I will highlight how we can tackle some of these open issues through means of multiwavelegth studies, in particular exploiting the capabilities of current high-energy experiments.

About the Speaker:

Lea Marcotulli is currently an Einstein Fellow at Yale University since Sept. 2021. She graduated with her PhD in Physics from Clemson University in May 2021. She is a high-energy astrophysicist, and her main research focus is studying blazars at high-redshift and their connection to supermassive black hole growth, both through single sources studies and population studies at X- and gamma-rays. She is also the proud co-founder of the science outreach YouTube channel (On) Planet Nine.