[astroseminar at Sapienza] 15/11/2016 at 16:00: Bence Kocsis

[Elia Battistelli]

Title: The dynamical origin of black hole mergers
Speaker:   Bence Kocsis
Institute: Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary
Date: Tuesday, 15 November 2016
Time: 4:00pm
Location: Aula Conversi, Marconi Building, Dept. of Physics, Sapienza 
University

Abstract:
With the detections of the gravitational waves emitted during black 
hole mergers, LIGO has recently opened the field of gravitational wave 
astrophysics. In this talk I will discuss some of the astrophysical 
processes that may be responsible for the observed events. Although less 
than 0.5% of the stellar mass is in dense stellar systems, a large 
fraction of the black hole mergers may originate in these environments. 
I will show that black hole holes may dynamically settle in a dark disk 
which further enhances the encounter rates. Moreover, accretion disks in 
active galactic nuclei may also facilitate black hole mergers. Finally, 
if primordial black holes constitute a fraction of dark matter, 
gravitational waves may shed light on its composition. I will discuss 
predictions on the event rate distribution that may be used to 
disentangle these astrophysical processes to understand the origin of 
the observed gravitational wave events.

web: https://agenda.infn.it/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=12087