Supermassive black hole mergers: from theoretical understanding to gravitational wave detections

Supermassive black holes have been found to have a strong correlation with the host galaxies they are found in, suggesting a co-evolutionary process as black holes and their host galaxies influence each other's growth. The merger of galaxies and the black holes they host is of particular interest, with an every-increasing focus on using the gravitational waves emitted by coalescing black holes to improve our understanding of the universe. In this talk, I will summarize the status of gravitational wave studies, including LIGO's first detection in 2015, the galaxy-sized detection methods of Pulsar Timing Arrays, and the upcoming LISA space mission, with a focus on the use of cosmological simulations to interpret and predict the information we can learn from these projects.