Speaker: Alejo Martinez-Sansigre
Location: Probing the Radio Continuum Universe with SKA Pathfinders, Lorentz Centre, Leiden, Netherlands
Every massive galaxy is believed to harbour a supermassive black hole in its centre. These can grow by accretion or by mergers, and these processes will leave different imprints in the spin history of the supermassive black holes. During periods of growth, supermassive black holes can be seen as active galactic nuclei, and for a given accretion rate they show a wide range of jet powers, as traced by the radio luminosity. Using recent theoretical models we find that black hole spin can explain the varying jet powers observed amongst active galactic nuclei, as well as the radio luminosity function. We can therefore use the radio observations to infer the cosmic spin history of the most massive black holes, and I will discuss the implications for the processes by which the supermassive black holes grow.