Collaborative Research: Mergers of Massive Black Holes at the Centers of Galaxies

研究人员将探索黑洞(BHS)如何在长时间尺度上成长和发光。大多数星系的中心都有巨大的黑洞，周围环绕着恒星、行星、尘埃和电离气体。由这种物质形成的恒星也可以为黑洞提供食物。这些黑洞的质量是太阳质量的数十亿倍。星系在其有生之年反复与其他星系合并。因此，超大质量黑洞对频繁形成。这对黑洞在空间和时间上产生的涟漪被称为引力波。因此，它们是引力波探测器的主要目标。引力波模拟为探索宇宙提供了一种新方法。研究人员的计算机模拟将有助于确定黑洞双星如何与周围物质相互作用。研究人员的模拟将帮助天文学家探测合并的黑洞，并了解黑洞周围的区域。研究人员将培训学生并开发可用于各种科学和工程应用的新数字代码。研究人员将对超大质量黑洞双星(SMBHB)的长期合并动力学进行数值模拟，这些黑洞周围有气体盘、行星和恒星。研究人员将详细模拟圆盘对SMBHBs轨道运动的流体动力学反应，以及圆盘对这一轨道运动的反向反应。这些理论家试图回答几个对理解天文观测很重要的问题。他们将对两个黑洞在存在不同类型气盘时合并所需的时间进行建模。从观察上看，重要的是估计在合并期间SMBHB周围的区域将有多明亮。这些结果将用于解释随机引力波背景的观测结果、大时域类星体光曲线的周期性以及恒星质量BHS的引力波强度。

The investigators will explore how black holes (BHs) grow and shine over long timescales. Most galaxies have enormous black holes at their centers, surrounded by stars, planets, dust, and ionized gas. Stars formed by this material can also feed the black hole. These black holes have masses that are up to billions of times the mass of the Sun. Galaxies repeatedly merge with other galaxies during their lifetimes. Thus, super massive black hole pairs form frequently. These pairs of black holes make ripples in space and time called gravitational waves. As such, they are prime targets for gravitational wave detectors. Gravitational wave simulations provide a new way to explore the Universe. The investigators' computer simulations will help determine how black hole binaries interact with surrounding material. The investigators' simulations will help astronomers detect merging black holes and understand the regions surrounding the black holes. The investigators will train students and develop new numerical codes that can be used for a wide variety of science and engineering applications.The investigators will numerically simulate the long-term merger dynamics of supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHB) with disks of gas, planets, and stars surrounding the black holes. The investigators will model, in detail, the hydrodynamical reaction of the disk to the orbital motion of the SMBHBs as well as the back-reaction of the disk on this orbital motion. These theorists seek to answer several questions important for understanding astronomical observations. They will model the time it takes for the two black holes to merge in the presence of different types of gas disks. Observationally, it is important to estimate how bright the region surrounding the SMBHB will be during merger. The results will be applied to interpret observations of the stochastic gravitational wave background, periodicities in quasar light-curves in large time-domain surveys, and gravitational wave strength of stellar-mass BHs.