Rene Goosmann
Rene has moved to his new position in Strasbourg, France.
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René Goosmann works on radiative transfer models in the close vicinity of accreting supermassive black holes. He models these objects over a broad spectral range from the optical to the X-ray band. The models include the effects of general relativity and the polarization properties of the radiation.
Accreting supermassive black holes are assumed to power the nuclei of active galaxies, which are ubiquitous in the universe. The geometry and the dynamics of the accretion flow in active galactic nuclei are still a matter of debate and detailed radiative transfer models are required to probe the various interpretations against the observed data. Closer to the black hole the accretion flow becomes hotter and emits at shorter wavelengths; the immediate vicinity of the black hole is seen in the X-rays. Some features in the X-ray spectrum reveal and probe the effects of general relativity. Farther away from the black hole, polarization gives important informations about the geometry and dynamics of the surrounding structures.