Formation of Galaxies in the Context of Gravitational Waves and Primordial Black Holes

Abstract

The recent discovery of gravitational waves has revolutionized our understanding of many aspects regarding how the universe works. The formation of galaxies stands as one of the most challenging problems in astrophysics. Regardless of how far back we look in the early universe, we keep discovering galaxies with supermassive black holes lurking at their centers. Many models have been proposed to explain the rapid formation of supermassive black holes, including the massive accretion of material, the collapse of type III stars, and the merger of stellar mass black holes. Some of these events give rise to the production of gravitational waves that could be detected by future generations of more sensitive detectors. Alternatively, the existence of these supermassive black holes can be explained in the context of primordial black holes. In this paper we discuss the various models of galaxy formation shedding light on the role that gravitational waves can play to test of the validity of some of these models. We also discuss the prospect of primordial black holes as a seeding constituent for galaxy formation.