| Abstract: |
Galaxy mergers are often advocated as the "trigger" of quasar activity. The reason is the expected dynamical instability during the interaction that funnels gas to the center towards the massive black holes in residence. What is the detailed interaction between dynamics, gas thermodynamics and star formation in fueling, and terminating, AGN activity? Massive black holes also have to cross from distances of tens of kpc to ­pc scale before they form a bound binary, pre-requisite to eventual coalescence. What are the conditions that allow massive black holes to bind as their galaxies merge? I will discuss some of our recent results investigating this issues. |
