Supercomputing the Formation of Black Holes

New research based on simulations using the Blue Waters supercomputer at NCSA reveals that when galaxies assemble extremely rapidly — and sometimes violently — that can lead to the formation of very massive black holes. In these rare galaxies, normal star formation is disrupted and black hole formation takes over. “We on the Blue Waters Project are very excited about this accomplishment and very pleased that Blue Waters, with its unique capabilities, once again enabled science that was not feasible on any other system,” said Bill Kramer, the Blue Waters Principal Investigator and Director.

Video: Massive Galaxies and Black Holes at the Cosmic Dawn

Tiziana DiMatteo from Carnegie Melon University gave this talk at the 2018 Blue Waters Symposium. “The first billion years is a pivotal time for cosmic structure formation. The galaxies and black holes that form then shape and influence all future generations of stars and black holes. Understanding and detecting the the first galaxies and black holes is therefore one of the main observational and theoretical challenges in galaxy formation.”

Podcast: Supercomputing Black Hole Mergers

“General Relativity is celebrating this year a hundred years since its first publication in 1915, when Einstein introduced his theory of General Relativity, which has revolutionized in many ways the way we view our universe. For instance, the idea of a static Euclidean space, which had been assumed for centuries and the concept that gravity was viewed as a force changed. They were replaced with a very dynamical concept of now having a curved space-time in which space and time are related together in an intertwined way described by these very complex, but very beautiful equations.”