München 2009 – scientific programme

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GR: Fachverband Gravitation und Relativitätstheorie

GR 3: Hauptvorträge Dienstag

GR 3.1: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 09:00–09:45, A214

Massive binary black holes and superkicks — •Stefanie Komossa — Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, München

There is now growing evidence that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) reside at the centres of many galaxies, and that the black holes' presence and growth is intimately linked with the formation and evolution of galaxies. Accreting supermassive black holes are the power source of quasars, the most luminous long-lived objects in the universe. Since galaxies are merging frequently with each other throughout the history of the universe, supermassive binary black holes will form frequently at their cores. Recent numerical relativity simulations predict that coalescing SMBHs may receive kick velocities up to several 1000 km/s due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves, leading to long-lived oscillations of the SMBHs in galaxy cores and even black hole ejections from their host galaxies. The presence of these "kicks" and "superkicks" has a wide range of exciting astrophysical implications which only now start being explored. I will summarize these, together with recent observations that point to the presence of massive binary black holes and superkicks.