Big Game Hunting: Black Holes in Central Cluster Galaxies

Nicholas McConnell
(UCB)



Abstract:

Recent discoveries of black holes with 1-10 billion solar masses, both in the local universe and at high redshift, have challenged theoretical models of how supermassive black holes originate and what cosmic events dominate their growth. The most massive black holes in the present-day universe reside in central cluster galaxies, suggesting that the universe's densest environments may provide special conditions for extreme black hole growth. I will discuss ongoing efforts to characterize black hole demographics in central cluster galaxies and to update the empirical correlations between black hole mass and various host galaxy properties. These correlations remain intriguing yet are prone to abuse.