Using gravitational waves and multi-messenger Astronomy to reverse-engineer the properties of galactic nuclei

Understand

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion disks onto supermassive black holes in the the centers of galaxies.

• AGN are believed to play important roles in the evolution of both supermassive black holes and their host galaxies over cosmic time.
• AGN and the nuclear star clusters (NSCs) that interact with them remain unresolved with present and planned telescopes.
• As a result, the properties of AGN and NSCs are highly uncertain.