Colloquium: Dr. Arash Bahramian | Curtin University

TITLE: Black holes lurking in our Galaxy - bridging the gap from theory to observations 

ABSTRACT: Black holes are among the most mysterious objects in our universe, and we have very limited understanding of their formation, evolution, and physics. Studying them is challenging both theoretically and observationally. Theoretical simulations predict that our Galaxy may contain 10^8 stellar-mass black holes with around 5% of them in binaries with other stars. However, there are only a few dozen black holes identified observationally in our Galaxy so far. This massive discrepancy is attributed to a combination of sensitivity limitations on the observational side and uncertainties on the theoretical assumptions on formation and evolution of black holes. Over the past few years, advancements in black hole studies both on the theoretical fronts and the observational side have opened the path for more comprehensive studies of the black hole population in an attempt to reconcile theoretical and observational studies. In this talk, I present my work on the observed population of black holes, observational limitations and complexities, and our efforts to consider these effects in statistical modelling of the black hole population.