THE BLANDFORD EFFECT IN HONOR OF ROGER AT 60 Chris McKee Oct 17, 2009

What is the Blandford Effect? This question has puzzled people since Roger’s first paper in 1972

He moved well above the usual circles… MNRAS B MNRAS B (1342) Blandford, R.D.; Payne, D.G. Hydromagnetic flows from accretion discs and the production of radio jets

Angular momentum: gravity vs. magnetic fields

He moved well above the usual circles… MNRAS B MNRAS B (1342) Blandford, R.D.; Payne, D.G. Hydromagnetic flows from accretion discs and the production of radio jets The fundamental paper on outflows from accretion disks. AGN: Do such outflows account for the obscuring torus? Protostellar disks: Magnetic braking is so efficient that theorists are now having difficulty creating disks! (More work for Roger.)

A protostellar jet embedded in a Blandford-Payne outflow

Roger in his younger days The force was with him… The most important work that I know of on efficient extraction of energy from black holes and its importance has not yet been fully realized---Jerry Ostriker

He was an early star on radio… RvMP B (1032) Begelman, Mitchell C.; Blandford, Roger D.; Rees, Martin J. Theory of extragalactic radio sources1984RvMP B MNRAS B (654) Blandford, R. D.; Rees, M. J. A 'twin-exhaust' model for double radio sources1974MNRAS B

The inevitable result of galactic evolution: A supermassive black hole at the nucleus The result is amply confirmed by observation; how it happens is under investigation (Begelman ea 84)

And a founding member of the jet set: ApJ B (978) Blandford, R. D.; Konigl, A. Relativistic jets as compact radio sources1979ApJ B A micro-quasar in the Galaxy GRS …the basis for our understanding of jets and their significance in the energy output of BHs as well as in interpreting many observational phenomena (Jerry Ostriker)

He realized Fermi’s dream of explaining the acceleration of cosmic rays:

Particle Acceleration in Supernova Remnants RCW 86 (SN 185) X-ray synchrotron emission (blue) from ~ eV electrons XMM Newton and Chandra The surprise is the rapid increase in the magnetic field near the shock.

He was ruthless in the pursuit of truth, even going so far as to starve black holes…

An accretion torus surrounds a spinning black hole. The torus defines a pair of funnels that collimate a relativistic hydromagnetic flow that eventually forms the radio jets.

He pioneered the theory behind extragalactic gravitational wave astronomy Artist’s conception of binary black hole discovered by Boroson and Lauer in Sloan data on quasars. Separation 0.1 pc Period ~ 100 yr Merger time > yr

He established the foundations of the theory of Gamma Ray Bursts… For, the Lorentz factor of the shock obeys Started while Roger was a postdoctoral visitor at Berkeley in the summer of 1975

His work reverberated around the world… (The fruits of my sabbatical at Caltech) (Bentz ea 09)

He even worked with observers, which is rare for theorists:

His contributions to observation and experiment continue to this day:

He saw the world through a new lens:

What then is the Blandford Effect? Seemingly intractable problems, in a wide range of fields, seem to melt away in the face of his intellect. But, he has taken on a new challenge…

With thanks to Dick McCray (1979) As the Chair of ASTRO 2010, he may have crossed the rationality horizon…

In defiance of the laws of physics, however, it is possible to emerge from beyond the rationality horizon: Note the many bottles of wine required for successful emergence!

ROGER!ROGER! (LATE)

With thanks to Dick McCray (1979)

His work reverberated around the world… (The fruits of my sabbatical at Caltech)