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

研究人员将探索黑洞（BH）如何在长时间尺度上生长和发光。 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。 银河系在它们的生命周期中不断地与其他星系合并。 因此，超大质量黑洞对经常形成。 这些成对的黑洞在空间和时间中产生涟漪，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新的途径。 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值代码。研究人员将数值模拟超大质量黑洞双星（SMBHB）的长期合并动力学，黑洞周围有气体盘，行星和恒星。 研究人员将详细模拟磁盘对SMBHB轨道运动的流体动力学反应以及磁盘对这种轨道运动的反作用。 这些理论家试图回答几个对理解天文观测很重要的问题。 他们将模拟两个黑洞在不同类型的气体盘存在下合并所需的时间。 在观测上，重要的是要估计合并期间SMBHB周围区域的亮度。 结果将被应用于解释观测的随机引力波背景，周期性的类星体光变曲线在大的时域调查，和引力波强度的恒星质量黑洞。

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.