Fundamental Physics Opportunities with the Next-Generation Event Horizon Telescope

Understand

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration recently published the first images of the supermassive black holes in the cores of the Messier 87 and Milky Way galaxies.

• These observations have provided a new means to study supermassive black holes and probe physical processes occurring in the strong-field regime.
• We review the prospects of future observations and theoretical studies of supermassive black hole systems with the next-generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT), which will greatly enhance the capabilities of the existing EHT array.
• These enhancements will open up several previously inaccessible avenues of investigation, thereby providing important new insights into the properties of supermassive black holes and their environments.