In 1974, astronomers Bruce Balick and Robert L. Brown discovered a powerful radio source at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, which was later found to be a supermassive black hole (SMBH) with a mass of over 4 million Suns. Since then, scientists have learned that SMBHs reside at the centers of galaxies with active central regions. Despite this knowledge, the origin of these massive black holes remains a mystery.
The most popular theories suggest that they may have formed when the Universe was young or grown over time by consuming matter and merging with other black holes. Research has also shown that when mergers occur between such massive objects, gravitational waves (GWs) are released. A recent study proposed a novel method for detecting pairs of SMBHs: analyzing GWs generated by binaries of nearby small stellar black holes.
The study was led by Jakob Stegmann and involved researchers from several institutions. They proposed that binary SMBHs can be detected by analyzing the gravitational waves emitted by smaller black hole binaries, which work as a beacon, revealing the existence of larger pairs of merging black holes.
However, this method would require a deci-Hz gravitational-wave detector, which is more sensitive than current instruments. The proposed method could detect merging SMBHs ranging from 10 to 100 million Solar masses, even at vast distances.
As Lucio Mayer added: “The community needs to evaluate the best strategy for the following generation of gravitational wave detectors, in particular which frequency range they should target.”
Source: https://www.universetoday.com/168030/scientists-develop-a-novel-method-for-detecting-supermassive-black-holes-use-smaller-black-holes/