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BINARY SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE (SMBH) MERGERS ARE EXPECTED TO BE THE LOUDEST GRAVITATIONAL WAVE SOURCE IN THE UNIVERSE; THE MERGER OF TWO MILLION SOLAR MASS BLACK HOLES FOR EXAMPLE WOULD BE DETECTABLE BY LISA (LASER INTERFEROMETER SPACE ANTENNA) TO REDSHIFT 3 WITH AN SNR OVER 100. IT WAS LONG THOUGHT THOUGHT THAT BINARY SMBHS WOULD STALL BEFORE REACHING THE GRAVITATIONAL WAVE STAGE BUT SIMULATIONS HAVE SHOWN THAT GALAXY SHAPE ROTATION AND GAS ALL HELP TIGHTEN THE BINARY ENOUGH TO COALESCE IN LESS THAN A HUBBLE TIME. NOW THAT WE KNOW THAT THE FINAL PARSEC PROBLEM IS NOT A PROBLEM WORK MUST SHIFT FROM WHETHER SMBHS COALESCE TO UNDERSTANDING THE MAPPING BETWEEN GALAXY PROPERTIES AND SMBH MERGER TIMESCALES. WE PROPOSE TO RUN A SUITE OF FLAGSHIP N-BODY SIMULATIONS TO UNDERSTAND THE RANGE OF SMBH BINARY COALESCENCE TIMES FOR MORE REALISTIC GALAXY MODELS AND EXPLORE THE ASTROPHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF INCORPORATING A PHYSICALLY-MOTIVATED RANGE OF MERGER TIMESCALES WITHIN SEMI-ANALYTIC MODELS OF GALAXY EVOLUTION.

$554,148FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

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