Special Session SS12  3 Jul 2026

Disc Winds Across the Mass Scale

News: Abstract submission for our Special Session is now open. We welcome ePoster submissions and especially encourage early-career researchers to submit abstracts.

Aims and scope

Disk winds - outflows of gas launched from accretion disks - are a ubiquitous and fundamental phenomenon across astrophysics, observed in systems ranging from protostars and white dwarfs to neutron stars and black holes. These winds play a pivotal role in at least three respects:

  • Regulating accretion by extracting mass, angular momentum, and energy from the disk.
  • Mediating feedback between the disk and its surrounding environment.
  • Shaping observations by acting as an intervening screen between the accretion flow and the observer.
Understanding disk winds is therefore essential for understanding accretion itself. Yet, despite decades of study, basic questions remain unresolved: How are these winds launched? What governs their properties? And what is their impact on the dynamical and radiative behaviour of accretion disks?


This special session aims to bring together experts working on disk winds in a wide variety of compact objects - white dwarfs, neutron stars, stellar-mass black holes, and supermassive black holes. While each class of object exhibits its own distinctive phenomenology, many physical processes are shared across systems. We aim to foster dialogue between observers and theorists across these communities, highlight synergies, and accelerate progress toward a comprehensive understanding of disk winds and their connection to accretion physics.
XRISM is opening a new window on disc winds through high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy, and rapid progress is emerging from coordinated multiwavelength campaigns and monitoring. We invite contributions from observers and theorists across X-ray, UV, optical, and IR spectroscopy and polarimetry, as well as simulations and analytic modelling, to synthesise progress across mass scales. By bringing these communities together, the session aims to share new findings across domains and sharpen a unified understanding of disc winds and their connection to accretion.

Programme

  • Recent observations of disc wind in compact objects (new XRISM results, multi-wavelength studies,...)
  • Progress in the theoretical modelling of disc winds in compact objects (thermal, radiative and magnetic)
  • Impact of disc winds on their environment (accretion/ejection connection, large-scale feedback,...)
  • Angular momentum loses and impact on secular evolution

Invited speakers

  • Prof. Lixin Dai(University of Hong Kong)
  • Margherita Giustini(Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), CSIC-INTA; TBC)
  • James Matthews(University of Oxford; TBC)
  • Pierre-Olivier Petrucci(Université Grenoble Alpes)
  • Megumi Shidatsu(Ehime University)
  • Ryota Tomaru(Osaka University)

Scientific organisers

  • Noel Castro Segura (Warwick University, UK; Chair)
  • Nicolas Scepi (Université Grenoble Alpes, France; Co-chair)
  • Andrés Gúrpide Lasheras (University of Southampton, UK; Co-chair)
  • María Díaz Trigo (ESO-Garching, Germany)
  • Christine Done (Durham University, UK)
  • Christian Knigge (University of Southampton, UK)
  • Teo Muñoz-Darias (IAC, Spain)
  • Ciro Pinto (INAF-Palermo, Italy)
  • Daniel Proga (University of Nevada, Las Vegas, US)

    • Contact

    noel.castro-segura [at] warwick [dot] ac [dot] uk
    andres.gurpide.astro [at] soton [dot] ac [dot] uk
    nicolas.scepi [at] univ-grenoble-alpes [dot] fr

    Updated on Mon Feb 09 13:59:02 CET 2026
European Astronomical Society