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Paulina Lira
Full Professor
Training and contact
Ph.D. en Astronomía, 1999, U. de Edimburgo, Reino Unido.
Research Topics:Black Holes, Active Galaxies, Galaxies, Supernova
Area of interest
My main area of research is black holes in active galaxies. These are black holes far more massive than those left behind by dying stars, having reached such gigantic masses by residing in galactic nuclei, where the availability of surrounding gas has allowed them to grow through the accretion of vast amounts of material. Specifically, I study the variability of the electromagnetic emission from these objects, which allows me to understand both the properties of the accreted material and the properties of the black hole itself. I have explored every wavelength in the study of these active galactic nuclei, from radio waves to X-rays.
Biography
My first research project involved studying the light curves of Type Ia supernovae and estimating the amount of reddening they undergo. I carried out this work during my Master's thesis at the University of Chile, working closely with astronomers from Cerro Tololo such as Mario Hamuy, Nick Suntzeff, and Mark Phillips. This project led to the establishment of Lyra's Law (https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/301032/pdf), which should have been called the Phillips-Lira-Suntzeff Law, or simply Phillips' Law, but the first name was too long and Phillips' Law already existed (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1993ApJ...413L. 105P).
During my doctoral studies, I changed direction and decided that black holes would be my focus of research. One thing hasn't changed, though: my interest in variability. My first publication during my PhD was about the variability of the smallest Seyfert galaxy discovered up to that time (and still one of the best known examples), NGC4395 (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1999MNRAS.305..109L). Today I study large and small black holes (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.02860.pdf), near and far black holes (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.08358.pdf), using variability as one of the best tools to find and characterize them (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.04844.pdf), without neglecting other methods such as optical spectroscopy (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.05345.pdf) and sub-mm spectroscopy (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.00525.pdf) to better understand the physics that governs them.
During my doctoral studies, I changed direction and decided that black holes would be my focus of research. One thing hasn't changed, though: my interest in variability. My first publication during my PhD was about the variability of the smallest Seyfert galaxy discovered up to that time (and still one of the best known examples), NGC4395 (http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1999MNRAS.305..109L). Today I study large and small black holes (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1912.02860.pdf), near and far black holes (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.08358.pdf), using variability as one of the best tools to find and characterize them (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1904.04844.pdf), without neglecting other methods such as optical spectroscopy (https://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.05345.pdf) and sub-mm spectroscopy (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2003.00525.pdf) to better understand the physics that governs them.
