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Sasha Tchekhovskoy

Tchekhovskoy, Sasha

Associate Professor

  1800 Sherman, 8055

Department:

As a computational astrophysicist, Professor Tchekhovskoy focuses on how black holes and neutron stars interact with their environment. They devour stars, eject relativistic jets, affect star formation and galaxy evolution, and enrich the Universe with heavy elements. To study these processes, he performs large-scale numerical simulations as well as algorithm and code development. His research interests range from investigating the basic physics of astrophysical accretion disks and jets to applying the physics results to interpreting observations and directly predicting electromagnetic emission from simulations for comparison to observations.

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Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Image

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This

A. Tchekhovskoy/Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University

  • Science

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Image

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This

A. Tchekhovskoy/Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University

  • Science

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Image

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This

A. Tchekhovskoy/Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University

  • Science

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Image

Black holes eat faster than previously expected

Simulated image of an accretion disk, the violent whirlpool of gas that encircles a supermassive black hole, broken apart into inner and outer rings. According to new high-resolution 3D simulations, spinning black holes twist up the surrounding space-time, ultimately ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas (or accretion disk) that encircles and feeds them. This

A. Tchekhovskoy/Nick Kaaz/Northwestern University

  • Science

Unprecedented gamma-ray burst explained by long-lived jet

Video

Unprecedented gamma-ray burst explained by long-lived jet

Last year, Northwestern University researchers uncovered new observational evidence that long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) can result from the merger of a neutron star with another compact object (either another neutron star or black hole) — a finding that was previously believed to be impossible. Now, another Northwestern team offers a potential explanation for what generated

Ore Gottlieb/Danat Issa/Alexander Tchekhovskoy/CIERA/Northwestern

  • Science

Dying stars’ cocoons could be new source of gravitational waves

Video

Dying stars’ cocoons could be new source of gravitational waves

When massive stars collapse into black holes, they may create powerful outflows (or jets) of particles traveling close to the speed of light. New simulations model this process — from the time the star collapses into a black hole until the jet escapes. For the first time, the simulations show that the cocoon of stellar

Ore Gottlieb/Northwestern/CIERA

  • Science

X-shaped Radio Galaxy Morphology: 3-dimensional movie of density

Video

X-shaped Radio Galaxy Morphology: 3-dimensional movie of density

When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with

Aretaios Lalakos

Black Hole Accretion Disc

Image

Black Hole Accretion Disc

A detailed simulation of a black hole’s accretion disc created by a global team of computational astrophysicists – including CIERA’s Prof. Sasha Tchekhovskoy – solved a decades-old mystery. The accretion disc is matter that orbits and then falls into a black hole. Researchers discovered how the disc aligns with the hole’s equator, details vital to