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Astrophysics Colloquium

The Orbital Motion of Supermassive Binary Black Holes in 0402+379
Presented by Karishma Bansal
University of New Mexico

Thursday, September 20, 2018
11:00 A.M. in 169-336 and on Webex

Abstract
Black holes exist in a various range of masses ranging from stellar mass to Supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Gravitational waves from merging stellar-mass black holes have recently been discovered by LIGO; however, we are yet to detect them from binary SMBHs (SMBBHs). These massive black holes reside at the heart of most of the galaxies and when two such galaxies collide, a binary formation takes place. However, the number of such confirmed systems is a handful. This raises questions such as how often do galaxies collide? Does a collision give rise to a binary system, and how quickly do these black holes merge after binary formation? Understanding these systems is important to understanding fundamental astrophysical problems ranging from galaxy evolution to active galactic nuclei (AGN) to black hole growth.

JPL Contact: Christopher Jacobs (4-7490)

About the Speaker
Karishma Bansal is a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, working under the supervision of Dr. Greg Taylor. She studies Supermassive Binary Black holes and Pulsars. Her work with pulsars includes using them to understand the interstellar medium effects such as scattering and scintillation. She has obtained a dual degree in Bachelors of Science and Masters of Science from IISER, Pune in India.


SVCP Astrophysics


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