Massive black hole pairs and binaries in the cosmos

Marta Volonteri – IAP

Séminaire exceptionnel

Massive black holes weighing from a few thousands to tens of billions of solar masses inhabit the centers of most galaxies. During their cosmic evolution the galaxies hosting massive black holes interact and merge: this gives rise to pairs of massive black holes that can be observed as dual active galactic nuclei. As the dynamical evolution of the pairs proceeds, eventually binaries are formed, whose coalescence driven by emission of gravitational waves can be detected with ESA’s planned satellite LISA and with Pulsar Timing Arrays.  I will discuss the physical processes through which massive black holes pair and bind and present the analysis of cosmological simulations to investigate the properties of dual active galactic nuclei, merging massive black holes and their host galaxies.