Monika MoScibrodska (Radboud University) will present a colloquia entitled: Black holes as laboratories of extreme physics

Astrophysical black holes, as observed throughout the nearby and distant Universe, are often not isolated objects surrounded by vacuum, but are embedded in extremely hot, magnetized plasmas that can rotate at relativistic velocities. The physical conditions in these environments are far beyond those accessible in terrestrial laboratories, making observations of plasma in the immediate vicinity of black holes a unique probe of fundamental physics. In particular, they provide opportunities to study extreme particle acceleration, the propagation and bending of light in strong gravitational fields, and the conversion of gravitational energy into radiation and other forms of energy. Recent observations with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have opened a new observational window onto these extreme environments by resolving structures on scales comparable to the black hole event horizon. These observations, together with complementary multi-wavelength observations and theoretical modelling, allow us to test our understanding of gravity, plasma physics, and high-energy astrophysical processes under conditions that cannot be reproduced on Earth.

This raises a fundamental question: what new physics might be revealed through observations of black holes? In this talk, I will discuss what we can learn from these extreme environments, how current observations – including those from the Event Horizon Telescope – are advancing our understanding, and what future observations may reveal about the fundamental laws governing the Universe.