ERC Consolidator Grant · 2023
Tidal Disruption Events: A New Black Hole Census
Massive black holes (MBHs) are key players in high energy astrophysics, galaxy formation and evolution, and astroparticle physics. Despite their centrality to astronomy, we still cannot answer basic questions about MBHs. What are their origins? How have they grown over cosmic time? What are their current demographics? To answer these questions, the project will turn tidal disruption events (TDEs) from curiosities into reliable probes of MBH parameters. A TDE occurs when an unlucky star passes too close to a MBH and is ripped apart by tidal forces. The ensuing fallback of debris powers a highly luminous, potentially multimessenger flare. TDEs are, in principle, ideal probes of MBH…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.