PAIR Distinguished Lecture: Prof. Douglas LIN, Fellow of the Royal Society, delivers "Bursts of Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes in Active Galactic Nuclei"
PAIR Distinguished Lecture Series
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Date
11 Nov 2026
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Organiser
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research
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Time
10:30 - 12:00
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Venue
Daniel Koo Lecture Theatre (PQ303), 3/F Mong Man Wai Building, PolyU (Seats are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis) Map
Speaker
Prof. Douglas LIN
Enquiry
PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research info.pair@polyu.edu.hk
Summary
Abstract
Black holes are among the most fascinating and extreme objects predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. Although they were once considered purely theoretical, their existence has now been firmly established through decades of observational evidence. These evidences range from the behavior of companion stars in binary systems to the stunning images of supermassive black holes hiding at the centers of galaxies. The landmark detection of gravitational waves by LIGO opened an entirely new window onto the universe, allowing us for the first time to "hear" the spacetime ripples. The ripples are produced when two black holes spiral inward and merge. Also from these ripples, we can directly measure their masses and spins. In this talk, I will guide you through the journey from the theoretical conception of black holes to their observational confirmation. Based on this, I will also introduce a frontier research topic: how small stellar-mass black holes may form and repeatedly merge in the dense environment surrounding a supermassive black hole. I will discuss the observational signatures that could test this hypothesis and explore what these findings might tell us about the broader history and evolution of black hole populations across cosmic time.
Online registration will be closed one working day prior to the event.
Prof. Douglas LIN
Fellow of the Royal Society
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Member of the U.S. National Academy of Science
Emeritus Professor, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
Prof. Douglas Lin is a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His most notable contributions include the pioneering simulations of gaps and spirals in protoplanetary discs with embedded protoplanets, which were verified by the later ALMA observations, and the disc-migration prediction which accounts for the origin of the short-period exoplanets.
His broad research areas also include: formation and evolution of the Solar and exo-planetary systems; interacting binary stars; dynamical evolution of globular clusters and satellite galaxies in the Galaxy; star formation and evolution in accretion discs around super-massive black holes in the Galactic center and active galactic nuclei. He was the founding director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University. He received the Brouwer Award from the American Astronomical Society and the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal from Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He is a fellow of the Royal Society, member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Science.
Personal Website: https://shorturl.at/6Az8c
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