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Matter and Electromagnetic Fields in Strong Gravity
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Matter and Electromagnetic Fields in Strong Gravity
CSIC Building (#406),
Seminar Room 4122.
Directions: home.cscamm.umd.edu/directions
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Merging Supermassive Black Holes in Astrophysics:
Gravitational Radiation Recoils, Spin and Gas Dynamics
Manuela Campanelli
Rochester Institute of Technology
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Abstract:
The final merger of binary supermassive black holes
(SMBHs), the consequent emission of asymmetrical gravitational
radiation and the substantial kick that follows may have a major
effect on the circumbinary disk surrounding the system. These
phenomena may play a crucial role in interpreting a number of objects
observed with current and future astronomical telescopes, including
binary active galacitic nuclei (AGN) and "naked" quasars displaced
from the centers of their host galaxies. Recent computational
breakthroughs in solving the Einstein's field equations in strong
field gravity have enabled computational astrophysicists to study
these dynamical effects in great detail. One of the most important
discoveries is that the merger of spinning black holes can yield
recoil velocities from asymmetrical gravitational radiation up to 4000
km/s. Several candidate recoiling SMBHs may have been observed, but
uncertainties in the theoretical predictions for observing such
systems limit the ability to confirm detections. In this talk, I
review the status of the simulation of binary black hole mergers in
full general relativity followed by a discussion on recent
calculations of large kicks, spin and gas dynamics and their possible
observations. |
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