Seung Hee "Philip" Cho (South Korea)

philip.cho01 @ stud.uni-heidelberg.de

Nuclear star clusters and supermassive black holes\

Nuclear star clusters and supermassive black holes may co-exist at the center of their host galaxy. They are intriguing astronomical targets, offering insight into various
astrophysical phenomena that impact both stellar dynamics and the growth of a central SMBH. Stellar tidal disruption events, caused by the close encounters of stars with the massive black hole, can be observed through their distinctive light curves, which result from the destruction of stellar debris followed by its accretion onto the black hole.

Stellar-mass compact objects, such as neutron stars or stellar-mass black holes, may also approach the central black hole, but with different consequences, including the production of gravitational waves.

My main research interest is in studying such dynamical event rates using direct N-body simulations, one of the most accurate numerical methods for replicating the evolution of nuclear star clusters. I am also interested in comparing the occurrence rates of these dynamical events in models with and without a stationary gaseous disk around the black hole, as its presence introduces more complex dynamical effects.

Supervisor:    Rainer Spurzem  (ARI)