Jenny Greene

Princeton

Cosmic Mergers & Acquisitions: Mergers and Black Holes and the Growth of Galaxies

Galaxies grow by merging. These mergers set off fireworks in the galaxy and fuel the supermassive black hole. We discuss how energy input from the growing black hole may impact the surrounding galaxy. We then ask whether the paired black holes ever merge themselves, which is necessary if we ever want to detect gravitational radiation from supermassive black holes.