Letters of Intent received in 2020

LoI 2022-2135
Cosmological evolution of black-holes across their mass spectrum: prospects for multi-messenger astrophysics

Topics

— The mass spectrum of black holes: stellar mass, intermediate mass, supermassive black holes
— Observational constraints on the cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes
— Observational constraints on the cosmological evolution of galaxies
— Observational constraints on accreting binary evolution 
— Bridging the gap between accreting binary populations in our Galaxy, nearby, and high-redshift galaxies
— Cosmological simulations of galaxies and supermassive black holes 
— Advances in accretion-disk physics and outflows
— Feedback by accreting binaries and supermassive black holes
— Recent results from large surveys: eROSITA, LIGO, SDSS-V, first JWST results
— Future prospects : 3rd generation GW detectors, LSST, 30m class telescopes, Euclid, LISA, ATHENA, SKA

Rationale

The available suite of observatories across the electromagnetic spectrum gives us an unprecedented view of the black hole populations across their full mass range. In addition, the results from the current generation of gravitational-wave detectors, and the unprecedented capabilities of their next generation shape a new landscape for the study of compact object populations, their mass spectrum, and their evolution. This combined with the large scale surveys planned for the next decade will provide the definitive census of the co-evolution of black-holes and galaxies from the epoch of reionization until today. Unifying the information from this multi-faceted and interdisciplinary observational landscape and combining it with theoretical advances in galaxy evolution is key for modeling the cosmological evolution of black-holes across their mass spectrum (stellar mass, intermediate, supermassive), addressing their role in reionization and preheating of the intergalactic medium, their interplay with their galactic environment, and understanding the progenitors and rates of black-hole mergers.

The next few years are expected to yield several new discoveries based on systematic studies of AGN and X-ray binary populations based on the eROSITA all sky survey, the SDSS-V and other wide-area multi-wavelength surveys, and the analysis of the O3 LIGO program among others. In addition systematic on-going efforts in the directions of modeling galaxy evolution with increasingly realistic feedback prescriptions, accretion-disk physics, and the development of novel approaches in accreting binary population synthesis will provide new insights in the co-evolution of galaxies, their compact object populations (including supermassive black holes), and will allow for new tests through comparisons with the wealth of forthcoming data.

This meeting is aiming to bring together the different communities related to studies of black-hole populations, at a time that important theoretical and observational advances are expected to take place. These communities include those interested on: different populations of black-holes (stellar-mass, intermediate mass, supermassive), local and high-redshift universe, accreting and quiescent systems, accretion physics across the black-hole mass spectrum, cosmological evolution of galaxies and feedback mechanisms. In addition since major facilities are expected to become available in the next decade (e.g. SKA, JWST, LSST, 30m class telescopes, Euclid, ATHENA, LISA, 3rd generation of gravitational-wave detectors), 2022 is the optimal time to assess the landscape and identify areas that additional progress in required in order to make the best use of the forthcoming data.