Description:

Title: Hungry Black Holes

Speaker: Suvi Gezari, University of Maryland

Host: Giacomo Terreran

Abstract:

We are entering an era of increasingly powerful wide-field optical imaging surveys that are transforming the study of the variable night sky. I will highlight the capability of time domain observations to probe supermassive black holes (SMBHs) lurking in the centers of galaxies by catching them light up in the act of feeding on stars and gas. Watching how these “hungry” black holes digest their meals can reveal their mass, spin, and binarity; the fundamental parameters of an astrophysical black hole. I will present results from our systematic studies of nuclear transients with the Pan-STARRS1, iPTF, and ZTF surveys, and conclude with a discussion of the exciting potential of the LSST to map the demographics of SMBHs over cosmic time.

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics