20–24 Jul 2015
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
Europe/Berlin timezone

Supermassive Black Holes, Black Hole Pairs & the Event Horizon Telescope

23 Jul 2015, 15:30
30m
Room 0.100, Lecture Hall (FIAS)

Room 0.100, Lecture Hall

FIAS

Speaker

Silke Britzen (MPIfR)

Description

Highest resolution Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) observations will probably soon tell us more about the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Centre (Sgr A*) and the cores of active galactic nuclei (AGN). It might also help to clarify the long-standing question whether the central massive objects in AGN are instead close pairs of black holes. Mergers of supermassive black hole pairs would provide the strongest gravitational wave signals. I will present examples of how we identify potential close binary black hole candidates based on the combined analysis of high resolution radio interferometric (VLBI) observations and multi-wavelength data. I will also provide an outlook on the scientific prospects with regard to future EHT-observations of these AGN.

Primary author

Presentation materials