Research
Black hole astrophysics
Image of powerful radio jets First image of a black hole
Within the last 25 years astronomers have discovered that black holes are ubiquitous
in the Universe, that while stellar mass black holes populate galaxies by the millions,
each galaxy also hosts a central supermassive black hole that is 10 million to 10
billion times the mass of the Sun. With the recent discovery of gravitational waves
in 2016 and the first picture of a black hole in 2019, the strangest objects found
in the mathematics of general relativity have now received powerful experimental support.
And when matter falls into these black holes they light up, some of them shining so
brightly they can be seen across the Universe. Researchers are trying to understand
how the enormous amounts of energy that are emitted from the centers of these active
galaxies can shape both their host galaxy as well as the intergalactic medium, an
exploration that takes us back to shortly after the big bang when the Universe was
only 5% of its current age. With the launch of JWST in late 2021, the 2020's promise
to reveal the effect of black holes on star formation across space and time. And with
this, we will uncover the details of the black hole scaling relations, the final and
most fundamental piece in our emerging picture of how black holes affect galaxies.
See NASA-News, Science-Magazine, Universe Today, Aliens and black holes, for my research.
Publications
2023
- David Garofalo, Damian J. Christian, Chase Hames, Max North, Keegan Thottam, Samuel Nazaroff, Alisaie Eckelbarger, M-σ relations across cosmic time, The Open Journal of Astrophysics, article link
- Chandra B. Singh & David Garofalo, The massive black holes, high accretion rates, and non-tilted jet feedback, of jetted AGN triggered by secular processes, Journal of High Energy Astrophysics, article link
- David Garofalo, The Past and Present of the Cosmos, Routledge, publication link
- David Garofalo, Advanced life peaked billions of years ago according to black holes, Galaxies, article link
- David Garofalo, Counter-rotating black holes from FRII lifetimes, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, article link
2022
- David Garofalo, Emily Moravec, Duccio Macconi, Chandra B. Singh, Is jet-reorientation the elusive trigger for star formation suppression in radio galaxies?, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- David Garofalo & Ektoras Pouliasis, Peculiar black hole accretion rates in AGN with highest star formation rates in the universe, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- David Garofalo & Chandra B. Singh, The unusual active galaxy H1821+643 and the elusive nature of FRI quasars, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- David Garofalo & George Mountrichas, The distribution of radio quiet active galactic nuclei in the star formation rate - stellar mass plane, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- David Garofalo, The origin and evolution of giant radio galaxies, Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, article link
2021
- Chandra B. Singh, Santanu Mondal & David Garofalo, Low frequency quasi periodic oscillations and shocks in accretion onto black hole, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
- David Garofalo & Chandra B. Singh, The astrophysics of rotational energy extraction from a black hole, Nature Astronomy, article link
- Chandra B. Singh, Nelitha Kulasiri, Max North, David Garofalo, The black hole-star formation connection over cosmic time, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- Chandra B. Singh, David Garofalo & Benjamin Lang, Powerful jets from radiatively efficient disks, a decades-old unresolved problem in high energy astrophysics, Galaxies, article link
2020
- David Garofalo & Chandra B. Singh, The emergence of the X-ray luminosity/cluster richness relation for radio galaxies, The Astrophysical Journal, article link
- David Garofalo & Katie Bishop, Evidence for radio loud to radio quiet evolution from red and blue quasars, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, article link
- David Garofalo, Brandt Webster, Katie Bishop, Merger signatures in radio loud and radio quiet quasars, Acta Astronomica, article link
- David Garofalo, Spin of the M87 black hole, Annalen der Physik, article link
- David Garofalo, Max North, Leanne Belga, Kenzi Waddell, Why radio quiet quasars are preferred over radio loud quasars regardless of environment and redshift, The Astrophysical Journal, article link
- David Garofalo, Ravi Joshi, Xiaolong Yang, Chandra B. Singh, Max North, Matthew Hopkins, A unified framework for X-shaped radio galaxies, The Astrophysical Journal, article link
2019
- Chandra B. Singh, David Garofalo, Kathryn Kennedy, The generalized Hardness-Intensity diagram for black hole and neutron star X-ray binaries, The Astrophysical Journal, article link
- David Garofalo, Merger signatures in low excitation radio galaxies, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
- David Garofalo, Damian J. Christian, Andrew M. Jones, The sub-Eddington boundary for the quasar mass-luminosity plane: A theoretical perspective, Universe, article link
- David Garofalo, Resolving the radio loud/radio quiet dichotomy without thick disks, the Astrophysical Journal Letters, article link
- David Garofalo & Chandra B. Singh, FR0 radio galaxies and their place in the radio morphology classification, the Astrophysical Journal, article link
- David Garofalo, Chandra B. Singh, Dylan T. Walsh, Damian J. Christian, Andrew M. Jones, Alexa Zack, Brandt Webster, Matthew I. Kim, The redshift distribution of BL Lacs and FSRQs, Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, article link
2018
- David Garofalo, Chandra B. Singh, Alexa Zack, The distribution and lifetime of powerful radio galaxies as a function of environment and redshift, Scientific Reports - Nature, article link
- Chandra B. Singh, David Garofalo, Elisabete M. de Gouveia Dal Pino, Magnetic reconnection and Blandford-Znajek process around rotating black holes, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2018 article link
2017
- David Garofalo, Magnetic fields threading black holes: Restrictions from general relativity and implications for astrophysical black holes, Astrophysics & Space Science, 2017 article link
2016
- Matthew I. Kim, Damian J. Christian, David Garofalo, Jaclyn D'Avanzo, Possible evolution of supermassive black holes from FRI quasars, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
- David Garofalo, Matthew I. Kim, Damian J. Christian, Emily Hollingworth, Aaron Lowery, Matthew Harmon, Reconciling AGN-star formation, the Soltan argument, and Meier's paradox, the Astrophysical Journal, article link
- David Garofalo & Chandra B. Singh, Scale-invariant jet suppression across the black hole mass scale, Astrophysics & Space Science, article link
2015
- David Garofalo, Symmetry and the arrow of time in theoretical black hole astrophysics, Journal of Gravity, article link
2014
- David Garofalo, Matthew I. Kim, & Damian J. Christian, Constraints on the radio loud/radio quiet dichotomy from the fundamental plane, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
2013
- David Garofalo, The jet-disc connection: evidence for a reinterpretation in radio loud and radio quiet active galactic nuclei, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2013 article link
- David Garofalo, Retrograde versus Prograde Models of Accreting Black Holes, Advances in Astronomy, article link
2011
- Masanori Nakamura, David L. Meier & David Garofalo, Magnetohydrodynamic properties of extragalactic jets, Astrophysics & Space Science
2010
- Masanori Nakamura, David Garofalo & David L. Meier, A magnetohydrodynamic model of the M87 jet. I. Superluminal Knot Ejections from HST-1 as Trails of Quad Relativistic MHD Shocks, the Astrophysical Journal
- David Garofalo & David L. Meier, Misconceptions about general relativity in theoretical black hole astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
- David Garofalo, Daniel A. Evans & Rita M. Sambruna, The evolution of radio loud active galactic nuclei as a function of black hole spin, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, article link
2009
- David Garofalo, Signatures of black hole spin in galaxy evolution, the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2009, article link
- David Garofalo, The spin dependence of the Blandford-Znajek effect, the Astrophysical Journal, 2009, article link
- David Garofalo, Spacetime constraints on accreting black holes, Physical Review D, 2009 article link
2008
- David Garofalo, Magnetic fields around black holes, PhDT
2006
- Chris Reynolds, David Garofalo & Mitch Begelman, Trapping of magnetic flux by the plunge region of a black hole accretion disk, the Astrophysical Journal, article link
2005
- Chris Reynolds, Laura W. Brenneman & David Garofalo, Black hole spin in AGN and GBHCs, Astrophysics & Space Science
- David Garofalo & Chris Reynolds, Sporadically torqued accretion disks around black holes, the Astrophysical Journal, article link
Student researchers (former and current)
- Keegan Thottam
- Chase Hames
- Alisaie Eckelbarger
- Duccio Macconi (PhD candidate in astrophysics at University of Bologna)
- Nelitha Kulasiri
- Leanne Belga
- Katie Bishop
- Kathryn Kennedy
- Adam Bunce
- Matthew Hopkins
- Brandt Webster
- Alexa Zack
- Andrew Jones (PhD in Computing with Computational Science & Engineering emphasis at Boise State University 2022)
- Diamonik Hough
- Jordan Simon
- Brenton Raffensberger
- Matthew I. Kim (Former grad student at California State University and Univ. of Manchester, UK)
- Ella Osby (Undergraduate astronomy major at Arizona State University)
- Derrick Pruitt
- Jaclyn D’Avanzo (Graduate student in astrophysics at Clemson University)
- Emily Hollingworth
- Aaron Lowery
- Matthew Harmon
- Michael Barnhill
