Date:
Tue, 05/05/200912:15-13:15
Location:
Kaplun Bldg, seminar room, 2nd floor
Supermassive black-hole binaries: the first light
There is mounting observational evidence that most galaxies, both active and quiescent, harbor in their centre a black hole, with mass over one million solar masses. Observations or merging galaxies and cosmological simulations point towards the existence (in abundance) of supermassive black-hole binaries. In the presence of a circumbinary disc these binaries can merger in less than the Hubble time and the merger can be accompanied by electromagnetic signals. These will give us, together with the gravitational signal, essential clues on the assembly of supermassive black holes and thus of their host galaxies. In this talk, I will review these issues, and will address the astrophysical consequence of supermassive black hole merger.
There is mounting observational evidence that most galaxies, both active and quiescent, harbor in their centre a black hole, with mass over one million solar masses. Observations or merging galaxies and cosmological simulations point towards the existence (in abundance) of supermassive black-hole binaries. In the presence of a circumbinary disc these binaries can merger in less than the Hubble time and the merger can be accompanied by electromagnetic signals. These will give us, together with the gravitational signal, essential clues on the assembly of supermassive black holes and thus of their host galaxies. In this talk, I will review these issues, and will address the astrophysical consequence of supermassive black hole merger.