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Unveiling the population of supermassive black hole binaries near merger

Project description

Research could reveal more about the properties of elusive black hole pairs

Nearly every galaxy in the universe hosts a supermassive black hole in its centre with a mass ranging from a million to a few billion times that of our Sun. When two galaxies collide, their supermassive black holes sink to the centre of the newly formed galaxy. Such supermassive binaries are a long-standing mystery in astrophysics: it is still unknown whether they will merge and what they could reveal about the extreme environments that shape them. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the UnveilingBlackHoles project will advance state-of-the-art simulations that model interactions of supermassive black hole binaries and their gaseous environments. By predicting the binary orbital evolution rates, the project will build the most accurate binary population models to date.

Objective

At the center of nearly every galaxy in the Universe lurks a supermassive black hole with mass millions to billions that of the Sun. When two galaxies collide,  their supermassive black holes sink to the center of the newly forming galaxy. There in this nascent galactic nucleus a supermassive black hole binary is formed. Supermassive binaries are the subject of a long standing mystery in astrophysics: will these monstrous black holes merge and what can that tell us about the extreme environments that shape them? I will make great strides towards solving this mystery through advancing the state of the art in simulations of interactions of supermassive black hole binaries and their gaseous environments. From these simulations I will predict binary orbital evolution rates as well as observational signatures of the interaction. I will use the former to build the most accurate binary population models to date and the latter to constrain these models via observational searches in the newest time domain data, possibly leading to the  first detections of these elusive black hole pairs.

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Topic(s)

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

KOBENHAVNS UNIVERSITET
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 207 312,00
Address
NORREGADE 10
1165 KOBENHAVN
Denmark

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Region
Danmark Hovedstaden Byen København
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 207 312,00
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