Dr. Truong Le

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
Commanding Team
Space Telescope Science Institute
CSC
3700 San Martin Drive
Baltimore, MD 21218
tle@stsci.edu
1-410-338-4581

links

Research Interests

* active galactic nuclei
* black hole/neutron stars accretion disc
* inviscid/viscous disc instability
* high-energy particle acceleration
* Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) formation rate
* galaxy formation and evolution
* cosmology & dark matter

My research interests vary from understanding the formation of the universe, galaxies, and black holes to understanding the processes that are constantly occurring within them. In the past eight years I focused my time on studying the mysteries that reside at the heart of many radio-loud/radio-quiet elliptical galaxies, particularly, supermassive black holes. From observational perspective, these radio-loud galaxies contain powerful relativistic jets and are believed to have a strong connection with the accretion disk. The formation of relativistic jets and the disk/jets connection, however, are rather difficult to understand since detailed structure and particles acceleration mechanisms at the microscopic level are still lacking. My research has been focusing on (1) understanding the dynamical flows structure of the accretion disk, and (2) searching for possible particles acceleration mechanisms responsible for powering the outflows/jets. These works required me to develop (1) the dynamical flows conservation equations for the gas plus outflows, (2) a self-consistent transport equation describing the particles acceleration that powers the outflow, and (3) the algorithms that numerically solve the dynamical flows conservation equations and the transport equation self-consistently. The hope is, of course, to gain a better understanding of the processes that occur in the inner region of the accretion disk near the event horizon.

My first taste at doing research in the area of black holes (AGN) was with Dr. Paul Nandra in the summer of 1999 at Goddard NASA in Greenbelt, Maryland . Following the summer, I was accepted to the doctoral program in computational astrophysics from the School of Computational Sciences at George Mason University. I studied under the advise of Dr. Peter A. Becker along the area of accretion flows, particles acceleration, shocks and jets in compact objects (supermassive black holes).

I defended my dissertation in August 2004, and accepted a research fellowship to work at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) with Dr. Kent Wood and Dr. Michale Wolff on linear analysis of unstable radiative shocks in Advection Dominated Accretion Disks, and with Dr. Charles Dermer on particle acceleration in high-energy radiation and cosmic-ray production in astrophysical environments, and Gamma-Ray-Bursts Cosmology.

Currently, I am working at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, MD supporting the James Webb Space Telescope to ready for launch in 2013 to study: the First Light in the Universe after the Big Bang, Assembly of Galaxies, Physics of Star Formation, and the Formation of Planetary Systems and the Conditions for Life.

Refereed Publications:

12) Das, S., Becker, P. A. & Le, T. " Dynamical Structure of Viscous Accretion Disks with Shocks," 2009, Vol 702, page 649.

11) Le, T. , & Dermer, C. D., " Gamma Ray Burst Predictions for the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope," 2009, Vol 700, page 1026.

10) Becker, P. A., Das, S., & Le, T., " Particle Acceleration and the Formation of Relativistic Outflows in Viscous Accretion Disks with Shocks,," 2008, ApJL, L93.

9) Le, T., & Dermer, C. D., " Gamma Ray Bursts in the Swift and GLAST Era," 2007,The First Glast Symposium. AIP Conference Proceeding, Vol. 921, Page 462.

8) Dermer, C. D., Ramirez-Ruiz, E., Le, T., " Correlations between Photon and High-Energy Neutrino Fluxes in Blazars and Gamma Ray Bursts," 2007, ApJL, Vol. 664, page L67

7) Le, T., & Dermer, C. D., " On the Redshift Distribution of Gamma Ray Bursts in the Swift Era," 2007, ApJ, Vol. 661, page 394

6) Le, T., & Becker, P. A., " Particle Acceleration in Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks with Shocks: Green's Function Energy Distribution," 2007, ApJ, Vol. 661, page 416.

5) Becker, P. A., Le, T., & Dermer, C. D., " Time-Dependent Stochastic Particle Acceleration in Astrophysical Plasmas: Exact Solutions Including Momentum-Dependent Escape," 2006, ApJ, Vol. 647, page 539.

4) Le, T., & Becker, P. A., " Particle Acceleration and the Production of Relativistic Outflows in Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks with Shocks," 2005, ApJ, Vol. 632, page 476.

3) Le, T., & Becker, P. A., "A Self-Consistent Model for the Formation of Relativistic Outflows in Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks with Shocks," 2004, ApJL, Vol. 617, page L25.

2) Becker, P. A., & Le, T. " Inner Boundary Conditions for Advection-Dominated Accretion onto Black Holes ," 2003, ApJ, Vol. 588, page 408.

1) Nandra, K.; Le, T.; George, I. M.; Edelson, R. A.; Mushotzky, R. F.; Peterson, B. M.; Turner, T. J. " The Origin of the X-Ray and Ultraviolet Emission in NGC 7469 ," 2000, ApJ, Vol. 544, page 734.

Conference proceedings and abstracts of talks:

Le, T., & Becker, P. A.," A Self-Consistent Model for Relativistic Outflows from Advection-Dominated Accretion Disks with Shocks ,", AAS Meeting # 203, 2004, B.A.A.S.

Le, T., & Becker, P. A.," Advection-Dominated Accretion Flows with Outflow ", AAS Meeting # 199, 2001, B.A.A.S.

Becker, P. A., & Le, T.," Inner Boundary Conditions for Advection-Dominated Accretion onto Black Holes ,'' AAS Meeting # 199, 2001, B.A.A.S.

Becker, P. A., Le, T., & Kazanas, D., `` Cosmic-Ray Modified Shocks: Structure and Stability,'' HEAD Meeting # 32, 2000, B.A.A.S.