Hierarchical Growth and Migration in AGN Disks - Statistical Properties of Black Hole Mergers

Explore a 54-minute physics lecture examining the statistical properties of black hole mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) disks. Delve into the mechanisms behind black hole-black hole mergers detected by the LIGO-VIRGO-Kagra collaboration, comparing dynamical and isolated binary approaches. Learn how black holes in AGN disks typically remain in orbit around supermassive black holes post-merger, sometimes in inclined orbits relative to the disk plane. Understand the role of AGN disk physics, particularly migration traps, in facilitating hierarchical mergers and establishing minimum mass thresholds for extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs). Discover how increasing black hole mass correlates with central migration tendencies, and how these findings help validate AGN channel mergers against observational data while enabling predictions for EMRIs in AGN environments.