Title: Intermediate-mass black holes: past, present, future Abstract: Despite their key importance from stellar to cosmological scales, intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are one of the unsolved puzzles of modern astronomy with no conclusive evidence for their existence. While the classical approach to detect them based on the use of optical and infrared data is limited … Continue reading "CRA Seminar: Giacomo Fragione (Northwestern)"

Title: Formation of Black Hole Binaries in AGN disks through Close Encounters Abstract: The possibility of binary black hole (BH) mergers in active galactic nucleus (AGN) accretion disks has recently received much attention. The community has studied the evolution of pre-existing BH binaries in AGN disks. However, how to form these BH binaries initially remains … Continue reading "CRA Seminar: Jiaru Li (Cornell)"

Title: The role of AGN accretion disks in the formation of characteristic, low-frequency GW sources Accretion disks in active galactic nuclei (AGN) can enhance the formation of gravitational wave (GW) sources via the interaction of embedded stars and BHs with the surrounding gas. This can produce a substantial population of ‘gas-embedded’ GW sources across a range … Continue reading "CRA Seminar: Andrea Derdzinski (U. of Zurich)"

Title: Searches for gravitational-waves beyond compact binary coalescences Abstract: The Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors have now completed three observing runs, and reported dozens of detections form compact binary mergers. … Continue reading "CRA Seminar: Meg Millhouse (GaTech)"