By S. McGee

The evolution of cosmic structures, the formation and growth of the first black holes and the connection to their baryonic environment are key unsolved problems in astrophysics. The X-ray Athena mission and the gravitational-wave Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) offer independent and complementary angles on these problems. We show that up to 10 black hole binaries in the mass range 10⁵ - 10⁸ M_☉ discovered by LISA at redshift <~ 3.5 could be detected by Athena in an exposure time up to 100 ks, if prompt X-ray emission of ~ 1% - 10% of the Eddington luminosity is present. Likewise, if any LISA-detected extreme mass ratio inspirals occur in accretion disks, Athena can detect associated electromagnetic emission out to redshift ~ 1. Finally, warned by LISA, Athena can point in advance and stare at stellar-mass binary black hole mergers at redshift <~ 0.1. These science opportunities emphasise the vast discovery space of simultaneous observations from the two observatories, which would be missed if they were operated in different epochs.

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