TALK ABSTRACT:
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Observations are providing increasingly detailed quantitative
information about the accretion flows that power such high energy
systems as X-ray binaries and Active Galactic Nuclei.  These
observations have been modeled in some detail by a variety of accretion
scenarios, but such models rely on unavoidable assumptions such as
regular flow geometry and a simple, parameterized stress.  Global
numerical simulations offer a way to investigate the basic physical
dynamics of accretion flows without these assumptions.  We have
developed a fully three-dimensional general relativistic
magnetohydrodynamic simulation code that evolves time-dependent inflows
into Kerr black holes.  The results from recent global simulations of
black hole accretion disks  will be reviewed, with an emphasis on the
influence of the rotating hole on the disk and  on jet production.

The talk will also highlight some of the aspects of the emergence of high
performance computing as a discipline as illustrated by simulations of
the astrophysics of massive black hole systems.