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Published February 2025 | Version Published
Journal Article Metadata-only

Insights into Supermassive Black Hole Mergers from the Gravitational Wave Background

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Yale University
  • 2. ROR icon University of Florida
  • 3. ROR icon Georgia Institute of Technology
  • 4. ROR icon Washington State University
  • 5. ROR icon Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
  • 6. ROR icon University of Chile
  • 7. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics
  • 8. ROR icon Leibniz University Hannover
  • 9. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 10. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
  • 11. ROR icon West Virginia University
  • 12. ROR icon Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • 13. ROR icon Clemson University

Abstract

At the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, participants of the rapid response workshop on the gravitational wave background explored discrepancies between experimental results and theoretical models for a background originating from supermassive black hole binary mergers. Underestimated theoretical and/or experimental uncertainties are likely to be the explanation. Another key focus was the wide variety of search methods for supermassive black hole binaries, with the conclusion that the most compelling detections would involve systems exhibiting both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signatures.

Copyright and License

© 2025 Springer Nature Limited.

Acknowledgement

We thank L. Bildsten, D. Kaczorowski, and B. Rojas for making our stay at KITP enjoyable and productive. We also thank B. Larsen for providing Fig. 1a. Our work was supported in part by NSF grants: PHY-2309135 to the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP), NSF PHY-2020265, AST-2414468, NSF AST-2307278, and NASA grants 80NSSC22K0748, 80-NSSC-24K0440. This work was also supported by the Flatiron Institute, part of the Simons Foundation, the Research Corporation for Science Advancement from award CS-SEED-2023-008, ANID FB-210003, and by the European Union (ERC-MMMonsters-101117624).

Additional details

Related works

Describes
Journal Article: https://rdcu.be/euZEZ (ReadCube)
Is new version of
Discussion Paper: arXiv:2501.08956 (arXiv)

Funding

National Science Foundation
PHY-2309135
National Science Foundation
PHY-2020265
National Science Foundation
AST-2414468
National Science Foundation
AST-2307278
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80NSSC22K0748
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
80-NSSC-24K0440
Flatiron Institute
Simons Foundation
Research Corporation for Science Advancement
CS-SEED-2023-008
Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
FB-210003
European Union
MMMonsters 101117624

Dates

Available
2025-02-07
Published

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA)
Publication Status
Published