========================================================================= "Understanding the Formation and Evolution of Black Hole X-ray Binaries" Dr. Anastasios Fragkos CfA, Harvard University, MA, USA When: Wednesday, 20th of October 2010 at 2.00 pm Where: 2nd Floor Seminar Room X-ray binaries are unique astrophysical laboratories as they carry information about many complex physical processes such as star formation, compact object formation, and evolution of interacting binary systems. I will initially present an analysis that allows us to reconstruct the full evolutionary history of known Galactic Êand nearby extra-galactic X-ray binaries back to the time of compact-object formation; the results provide us with the most robust constraints on black-hole formation and advance our understanding on the physics of binary evolution. Motivated by recent measurements of spin magnitudes in black hole X-ray binaries, I will also present population studies of black hole X-ray binaries in the Milky Way. These simulations are targeted at deriving quantitative constraints on theÊmisalignment between the spin axis of the black hole and the orbital angular momentum that can occur during the supernova explosion that forms the compact object.ÊFinally, I will briefly talk about an ongoing project towards developing a new advanced computational tool for the study of X-ray binary populations formed in both galactic fields and dense stellar clusters.Ê ========================================================================