Avery Broderick

The goal of my research program is to elucidate the fundamental nature and astronomical consequences of astrophysical black holes. I do this via a number of independent projects, spanning scales from the horizon to the universe, each of which are connected by the critical role played by the extreme physical conditions near black hole horizons. My current focus is the interpretation and analysis of horizon-resolving millimeter wave observations of the supermassive black holes at the centers of the Milky Way and M87. These observations provide unprecedented access to the immediate vicinity of the horizon, and therefore to the effects of strong gravity near black holes. Hence they provide an ideal opportunity to probe both the high-energy astrophysics powering some of the most energetic phenomena in the universe and test the validity of general relativity in the strongly non-linear limit. This work involves developing both the models and the analysis techniques, often combining the high-resolution radio data with additional observations in multiple wavebands, to extract answers to the physically relevant questions. In addition, I am also very involved with a number of efforts to assess the impact of black holes on cosmological scales. These efforts bring a wide variety of astrophysical areas together, ranging from studying the most extreme plasmas in the universe to the cosmological thermodynamic history and its impact on the growth of structures.