In Search of the Biggest Bangs since the Big Bang

Abstract

Many galaxies contain supermassive black holes (SMBHs), whose formation and history raise many puzzles. Pulsar timing arrays have recently discovered a low-frequency cosmological "hum" of gravitational waves that may be emitted by SMBH binary systems, and the JWST and other telescopes have discovered an unexpectedly large population of high-redshift SMBHs. We argue that these two discoveries may be linked, and that they may enhance the prospects for measuring gravitational waves emitted during the mergers of massive black holes, thereby opening the way towards resolving many puzzles about SMBHs as well as providing new opportunities to probe general relativity.