When galaxies merge, each can bring a supermassive black hole into the remnant. If both are accreting, the system appears as a dual AGN, and finding such pairs is one route to studying how SMBHs pair up and evolve. This project asks what those pairs should look like at radio wavelengths.
- Develop a theoretical and computational framework for predicting radio emission from dual AGNs in post-merger galaxies, with applications to searches for SMBH pairs.
- Connect host-galaxy and SMBH properties from IllustrisTNG with pre-existing orbital-evolution calculations to model the evolving accretion and radio-emission properties of the pair.
- Model accretion from magnetized gas and relativistic jet power, considering the dependence on the black holes’ motion and the surrounding galactic environment.
- Calculate radio synchrotron spectra, including synchrotron self-absorption, to predict the fluxes and spectral properties of the two AGN cores.
- Investigate how radio detectability depends on projected separation, redshift, host-galaxy properties, and observing frequency, toward predictions for next-generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) surveys.
The project is part of the NSF-funded program led by David R. Ballantyne (PI) and Tamara Bogdanović (Co-PI). The host-galaxy properties come from the IllustrisTNG simulations, and the orbital-evolution calculations predate this work; my part is building the radio-emission framework that connects them. The work is in progress, and results will appear here once they are published.