Probing Formation Channels of Extreme Mass-Ratio Inspirals

Future extreme-mass-ratio inspiral detections could identify how compact objects reach massive black holes. This talk compares expected eccentricities, inclinations and component masses for gas-free and gas-assisted formation. It examines how population measurements might separate channels and reveal properties of active-galaxy disks, including lifetimes and turbulence, as well as accretion behaviour and stellar black-hole populations in nuclear clusters.