Supermassive black hole mergers and cosmological structure formation

Abstract

Massive black holes (MBHs), with masses in the range 10^3-10^8 Msolar, which merge with a companion black hole of similar mass are expected to be the most powerful source of gravitational radiation in the frequency range probed by LISA. MBH binaries can be detected by LISA up to z~5-15. Gravitational waves from MBH mergers can serve as a powerful tool to study the early evolution of the MBH population, and possibly the role played by MBHs in the joint evolution with their hosts. I review scenarios for the co-evolution of MBHs and cosmological structures, where MBH seeds form in pre-galactic structures. These black holes evolve then in a hierarchical fashion, following the merger hierarchy of their hosts. Accretion of gas, traced by quasar activity, plays a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole, mass and spin. Gravitational waves, together with observations in electromagnetic bands, can help constrain the evolution of both MBH mass and spin.