Title:

Black Holes in Galaxy Mergers



Lars Hernquist
Harvard University


Abstract:


I describe numerical simulations designed to study the growth and
impact of supermassive black holes during mergers of gas rich
galaxies.  Preliminary results show that this process can account for
the observed correlation between black hole mass and velocity
dispersion of ordinary galaxies, the connection between ultraluminous
infrared galaxies and buried active galactic nuclei, and the lifetimes
and luminosities of bright quasars.  I also discuss possible 
implications of feedback from black hole accretion on the
evolution of normal ellipticals and the formation of disk
galaxies.