Astro Seminar: Stephen Taylor

Speaker: Stephen Taylor (Vanderbilt University)

Title: Standing Out From The Crowd: Finding Supermassive Black-hole Binaries in Gravity & Light

Abstract: Despite huge efforts, there remains a paucity of tight-separation supermassive black-hole binaries, and no unambiguous systems known below a parsec. I will discuss ongoing efforts to resolve these systems out of the confusion gravitational-wave signal seen by pulsar-timing arrays, how we can maximize the information and prospects from these searches, how we can link these signals to their host galaxies, and also discuss the potential for associated electromagnetic signatures. The latter raises the possibility of performing simultaneous multi-messenger analyses for supermassive black-hole binaries, piloting the kind of searches that the next-decade LISA mission will need to do on an accelerated timescale at different wavelengths. I will also discuss the ways in which we can learn about the demographics and dynamics of supermassive black holes using the PTA gravitational-wave background as a census of the entire population, and using sophisticated population synthesis simulations with deep-learning emulators.

Date and Time: 15.09.2025 at 2:15 PM

Place: Auditorium A