Massive black hole demographics with tidal disruption eventsConfirmed

by Andrew Mummery (Institute for Advanced Study (IAS))

Thursday Apr 2, 2026, 9:30 AM → 11:00 AM America/Toronto

PI/4-405 - Bob Room (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

Tidal disruption events — where an unfortunate star is destroyed by a previously quiescent supermassive black hole — offer a unique probe of the low mass end of the supermassive black hole population. Recent observational advances have lead to the discovery of ~100 such events, many of which are comprehensively followed up across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. I will discuss how time-dependent relativistic accretion theory can be used to understand this multi wavelength emission from optical through X-ray energies, and how this theory allows tidal disruption events to act as probes of the massive black hole population. I will present current constraints on the occupation fraction of intermediate mass black holes, and look forward to what can be expected in the LSST era.