Special Lectures

Intermediate Mass Black Holes in Gravitational Wave AstronomyPeraiah Foundation Lecture

by Prof. Archana Pai (Department of Physics, IIT Bombay)

Asia/Kolkata
Auditorium

Auditorium

Description

Intermediate mass black holes have been elusive sources in observational astronomy. GW190521 was the first confident binary black hole merger event with the remnant as an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH), detected by LIGO-Virgo detectors. The discovery was unique and posed pertinent questions on the possibility of the massive black hole formation. With improved sensitivity, we expect to observe similar signals in the ongoing observational run. Observation of IMBH binaries has the potential to probe the hierarchical merger scenario and the IMBH binary formation channels. Due to the peculiar signal morphology, detecting and estimating astrophysical parameters of such massive black hole binaries pose several challenges in gravitational wave astronomy. The lecture will highlight the discovery, astrophysical implications, and detection strategies for massive black hole binaries.