MSI Lunch Talks

Jeremie Choquette & Paul Charlton (McGill University)

Jeremie Choquette>

Title:"Early formation of SMBHs via dark matter self interactions"

Abstract:

The existence of supermassive black holes at high redshifts (z~7) is difficult to accommodate in standard astrophysical scenarios. Previous studies have shown that a subdominant component of self-interacting dark matter can produce early black hole seeds through the gravothermal catastrophe; we reconsider the problem using N-body simulations to show that elastic and dissipative scattering could form SMBHs by the observed redshifts.

Paul Charlton>

Title:"The Host Galaxies of Changing-Look Quasars"

Abstract:

Changing-look quasars (CLQs) are a class of active galaxy which exhibit extreme variability due to accretion rate variations. We study four CLQs in their faint state to and classify the morphological and photometric properties of the host galaxies, comparing them to both other active galaxies, and inactive galaxies. We also examine their environment for quasar ionization echoes, which can tell us about the quasar's luminosity history.