Characterizing the Early Co-evolution of Galaxies, Black Holes, and Gravitational-Wave Sources

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

The recently launched James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has already transformed our understanding of the early Universe. The discovery of rich populations of galaxies at cosmic epochs shortly after the Big Bang has challenged models for galaxy formation and evolution. Supermassive black holes (BHs), which live in galactic nuclei, have also been observed by JWST at very early epochs. These BHs are the next frontier in science with gravitational waves (ripples in the fabric of spacetime); gravitational waves from close pairs of BHs may soon be detected with pulsar timing arrays and with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. However, this coming wealth of data will require robust theoretical models of these complex processes. The PIs will address key gaps in our understanding of BH and galaxy evolution in the early Universe, including systems that produce gravitational waves. Using a suite of state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, they will determine the impact of different BH evolution models on galaxy and BH properties in the early Universe. Their results will provide a transformative leap in understanding how BH formation, growth, and dynamics impact their co-evolution with galaxies, as well as the environments in which gravitational-wave sources are found. They will also expand the University of Florida (UF) Gator Computing Program (GCP) to be a residential summer program for historically excluded high school students, with additional programming that leverages the resources of the new UF Artificial Intelligence Initiative. Supermassive black holes (BHs) are fundamental components of galaxy evolution, and they are the next frontier in gravitational wave (GW) astronomy: GWs from BH binaries may soon be detected with pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) and with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In the meantime, initial results from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have already transformed our understanding of the high-redshift Universe. The coming wealth of JWST data will unveil early BH and galaxy evolution and provide crucial complements to GW observations, but their interpretation will require robust theoretical models of these complex processes. Although the highly biased population of luminous z ~ 6 quasars constrains BH formation and early growth for those massive objects, they tell us nothing about the origins of much more numerous, "ordinary" BHs. This project will address these major questions: (1) How do galaxies evolve in concert with BHs and AGN in the early Universe? (2) What are the host characteristics of inspiraling BH pairs and GW sources? This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.