It's Raining Black Holes...Hallelujah!

Event Date:
2024-01-08T16:00:00
2024-01-08T17:00:00
Event Location:
HENN 318
Speaker:
Smadar Naoz, UCLA
Related Upcoming Events:
Astronomy Colloquia
Intended Audience:
Undergraduate
Local Contact:

Brett Gladman (gladman@astro.ubc.ca) and Allison Man (aman@phas.ubc.ca)

All are welcome to this event!

*snacks will be served starting at 3:30pm.

Event Information:

 

Abstract:  

Gravitational wave (GW) emissions from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are promising sources for low-frequency GW detectors.

EMRIs are the result of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that captures a stellar-mass compact object, such as BH. The channel often considered in the literature involves weak two-body kicks from the population of stars and compact objects surrounding the SMBH that can change the BH's orbit over time, driving it into the SMBH. On the other hand, perturbations from SMBH companions via the eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism can excite the SMBH to high eccentricities, thereby forming EMRIs. 

In this talk, I will demonstrate that combining these two processes is essential to comprehending the dynamics of EMRI progenitors. I will also show that EMRIs are naturally formed in SMBH binaries with higher efficiency than either of these processes considered alone. Thus, it is truly raining black holes! This scenario results in a large stochastic background for future GW detectors such as LISA. Finally, I will demonstrate the implications that this physical mechanism has on tidal disruption events.

 

Bio:

My group and I are working on a wide range of dynamics research problems covering topics from cosmology to the dynamics of black holes, stars, and extrasolar planets. During my PhD I studied the formation, evolution and properties of the first generations of galaxies and 21cm fluctuations. In parallel, while still a graduate student, I was intrigued by the theoretical challenges and problems in the dynamics of our solar and extra-solar planetary systems and decided to pursue those as well. This part of my work was further enhanced during my postdoc years where I have studied the dynamical evolution of Hot Jupiters. Most notably I have found a new mechanism that, not only produces Jupiter like planets in a very close proximity to the star, but can also explain the eccentric and even retrograde observed systems. This mechanism, known as the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism, raises many interesting research questions, which are applicable to a diverse range of astrophysical systems at different scales.

My group and I continue to work on the formation of structure in the early Universe. Notably, we recently showed that gas-only structures could naturally form without dark matter in the early Universe, at the presence of the supersonic, relative velocity between the gas and dark matter. We showed that these Supersonically-induced gas objects (SIGOs) might be linked to present-day globular clusters.
 

Learn More:

Add to Calendar 2024-01-08T16:00:00 2024-01-08T17:00:00 It's Raining Black Holes...Hallelujah! Event Information:   Abstract:   Gravitational wave (GW) emissions from extreme-mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs) are promising sources for low-frequency GW detectors. EMRIs are the result of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that captures a stellar-mass compact object, such as BH. The channel often considered in the literature involves weak two-body kicks from the population of stars and compact objects surrounding the SMBH that can change the BH's orbit over time, driving it into the SMBH. On the other hand, perturbations from SMBH companions via the eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism can excite the SMBH to high eccentricities, thereby forming EMRIs.  In this talk, I will demonstrate that combining these two processes is essential to comprehending the dynamics of EMRI progenitors. I will also show that EMRIs are naturally formed in SMBH binaries with higher efficiency than either of these processes considered alone. Thus, it is truly raining black holes! This scenario results in a large stochastic background for future GW detectors such as LISA. Finally, I will demonstrate the implications that this physical mechanism has on tidal disruption events.   Bio: My group and I are working on a wide range of dynamics research problems covering topics from cosmology to the dynamics of black holes, stars, and extrasolar planets. During my PhD I studied the formation, evolution and properties of the first generations of galaxies and 21cm fluctuations. In parallel, while still a graduate student, I was intrigued by the theoretical challenges and problems in the dynamics of our solar and extra-solar planetary systems and decided to pursue those as well. This part of my work was further enhanced during my postdoc years where I have studied the dynamical evolution of Hot Jupiters. Most notably I have found a new mechanism that, not only produces Jupiter like planets in a very close proximity to the star, but can also explain the eccentric and even retrograde observed systems. This mechanism, known as the Eccentric Kozai-Lidov (EKL) mechanism, raises many interesting research questions, which are applicable to a diverse range of astrophysical systems at different scales. My group and I continue to work on the formation of structure in the early Universe. Notably, we recently showed that gas-only structures could naturally form without dark matter in the early Universe, at the presence of the supersonic, relative velocity between the gas and dark matter. We showed that these Supersonically-induced gas objects (SIGOs) might be linked to present-day globular clusters.  Learn More: Read Smadar's faculty website at UCLA: Smadar Naoz (ucla.edu) Event Location: HENN 318