November 11, 2025

Speaker: Daniel D'Orazio (STScI)

Contact Information: 

Title:  Searching for Supermassive Black Hole Binaries: Gas, Gravity, and Gravitational Waves

Abstract: At the center of nearly every galaxy in the Universe resides a supermassive black hole. When galaxies collide, their supermassive black holes sink to the center of the newly forming galaxy. There in this nascent galactic nucleus a supermassive black hole binary is formed. Supermassive binaries are the subject of a long-standing discussion in astrophysics: will these monstrous black holes merge and what can that tell us about the extreme environments that shape them? Their mutual evolution with galaxies? And the low-frequency gravitational wave sky? I will discuss progress in modeling accretion onto supermassive black hole binaries with focus on implications for binary orbital evolution and the prospects for finding them with upcoming time-domain surveys and gravitational wave observatories.

Visitor's room: 123

Visit Schedule:

If you're not meeting in the visitor's office (Room 123), please indicate your office number.

Wednesday (Nov 12):

• 9:30 a.m.:  Jeremy Goodman

• 10:00 a.m.:  Nick Kaaz

• 10:30 a.m.:  (optionally astro-coffee) 

• 11:00 a.m.:  Yoonsoo Kim

• 11:30 a.m.: Rostom Mbarek

• 12:00 p.m.:  Barak Rom

• 12:30 p.m.: Wunch

• 1:00 p.m.: Wunch

• 1:30 p.m.: Abhishek Hegade

• 2:00 p.m.: Eve Ostriker (Peyton 136)

• 2:30 p.m.: Philippe Yao

• 3:00 p.m.: Brian Seymour

• 3:30 p.m.: 

• 4:00 p.m.: Hanpu Liu

• 4:30 p.m.:  Eliot (Peyton 127)

Dinner Sign-up - add your name here:

Day of week:

1. Faculty Host:  Michael Strauss 

2. Postdoc Host: Akash Gupta

3. Rana Osman

4. Ronan Hix

5. Caleb Lammers

6.  Amir Siraj

7.  Matt Goodbred

8.  Speaker

STUDENTS HAVE PRIORITY.

PLEASE NO MORE THAN 8 PEOPLE (it is more difficult to properly interact with the speaker in larger groups).