B.Sc. Physics, University College Cork, National University of Ireland 1987

Ph.D., Caltech, 1997

Research Associate, Cardiff University, Wales, 1997-2000

Senior Research Fellow, Caltech 2001-2004

Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, 2004-2009

Assistant Professor, 2009-present

Research Interests:
Dr. Kennefick's research interests include the astrophysics of supermassive black holes (in particular their mass function) and their role in galactic evolution, theoretical modeling of gravitational waves from binary black hole systems (especially those with extreme mass ratios) and the history of relativity theory and astronomy. He also contributes to editing the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein and to the AGES collaboration.

SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLES

Supermassive black holes are thought to exist at the centers of nearly all galaxies. They typically seem to have masses of between a hundred thousand and a billion solar masses, where their mass has been measured, yet occupy a region of space only about the size our solar system or smaller. They appear to be the engine for the enormous luminosity of quasars and other active galactic nuclei when they are accreting new material onto themselves. It is widely believed that they play a key role in the evolution of their host galaxies. They may even have come into being before the galaxy that surrounds them. Since black holes of this size can, theory predicts, never decrease in size, the large ones which powered the brightest quasars long ago must still exist in our local Universe, but in a quiescent state which makes them hard to observe. To better understand these objects and their role in galactic evolution, we would like to determine their mass function, and its evolution in time. This simply means counting them, how many are large, how many small, how many medium, and determining how this mass function has changed over time. This work is part of the AGES collaboration (Arkansas Galaxy Evolution Survey), whose members also include Profs. Julia Kennefick and Claud Lacy of this department.

Supermassive black holes are expected to be the primary and most exciting source for the proposed space-based gravitational wave detector LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). The most common source involving these objects would be extreme mass ratio inspirals, involving a stellar-mass black hole or neutron star spiraling into, and being swallowed by, one of these supermassive black holes. Modeling of these inspirals, using semi-analytic solutions to the theory of general relativity, permits us to predict the waveforms which these events will emit, and helps the LISA team design their detector to take advantage of these sources.

I am also interested in the history of gravitational waves, having written a book on the subject, and papers on other historical topics in physics and astronomy, such as the famous 1919 eclipse expedition to test Einstein's theory of general relativity. I help to edit the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, published by Princeton University Press.