Speaker
Description
SMBH grow through both accretion and merging. The effect of this latter channel is debated, together with the effect of galaxy merging on AGN activity. Being produced by two SMBH in the a common host galaxy in the process of merging, Dual AGN at kpc separations can shed light on these two important effects. The models of galaxy/SMBH co-evolution are producing a number of critical predictions about these systems (dual fraction, BH mass distribution, separation distribution etc.) that have never been tested. This population is also critical to predict the GW event rate and background in LISA and PTA.
I will describe the results of a large, on-going observational project aimed at detecting and studying the properties of a large sample of dual AGN at sub-arcsec separations using several hundreds of hours of spaceborne and ground-based telescopes, in particular VLT/MUSE, VLT/ERIS, Keck/OSIRIS, LBT, HST, VLA, LOFAR, and JWST. I will present the first physical properties of these systems in terms of dual fraction and BH mass distribution, and how they compare with the predictions of current models of galaxy formation and galaxy/SMBH co-evolution.