Giant black holes in clusters of galaxies
Julie Hlavacek-Larrondo
Stanford University
One of the most fascinating discoveries in modern astrophysics has been
the realization that all massive galaxies must harbour a black hole at
their centres, and that these black holes can be colossal (M_BH > 10^6 Msun).
The interplay between the accretion of material and the release of
energy of one of these black holes is known as AGN feedback, and during
this talk, I will review the status of this field while concentrating on
the most massive black holes in the Universe, those that lie at the centres
of clusters of galaxies. I will also present new results suggesting that
some of these black holes are significantly more massive than previously
thought, i.e. that some are ultramassive (M_BH > 10^10 Msun) as opposed to
supermassive (M_BH ~ 10^9 Msun). The existence of ultramassive black holes
puts stringent constraints on black hole formation models as it remains
unclear how black holes can grow to such masses.
Date: | Jeudi, le 20 décembre 2012 |
Heure: | 11:00 |
Lieu: | Université McGill |
| Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Board Room (room 104) |
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