2019
New Connections between Supermassive Black Holes and their Host Galaxies
by
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Pacific/Honolulu
Watanabe/4th-420 - W420 (W420)
Watanabe/4th-420 - W420
W420
Dept. Phys. and Astronomy Watanabe Hall
20
Description
The accretion of individual stars by supermassive black holes can be
observed when stars are torn apart through tidal forces, resulting in a
bright observable flare. I will present recent work demonstrating that these
tidal disruption events (TDEs) occur at a high rate in galaxies which have
experienced a recent galaxy-wide burst of star formation. I will explore
several possibilities for what might connect the small-scale dynamics at the
centers of these galaxies to their large-scale star formation histories, and
present a method for using this host galaxy preference to find new TDEs in
next-generation large transient surveys.