Julia Comerford (UT Austin)

A Systematic Approach to Identifying Dual Supermassive Black Holes

Dual supermassive black holes (SMBHs) with kpc-scale separations are an expected consequence of galaxy mergers, yet surprisingly few dual SMBHs have been observed to date. I will outline new observational techniques for identifying dual SMBHs that utilize a combination of large spectroscopic surveys of galaxies, longslit spectroscopy, and X-ray and radio imaging. I will also present the resultant dual SMBHs that have been discovered with these methods. These systematic searches will enable us, for the first time, to assemble a large observational catalog of dual SMBHs, which will provide observational constraints on the galaxy merger rate, SMBH growth, and SMBH coalescence.