Black hole ejections in mergers of small groups of galaxies

The formation of a multiple black hole system via merging processes of galaxies is simulated. Starting from the hierarchical halo merger model by Lacey and Cole (1993) and the general assumption that supermassive black holes (> 106M⊙) are common in the nuclei of galaxies we followed the formation of a four black hole system. Ultimately, instability of the four body system led to 835 symmetric two-sided slingshot ejections out of 10,000 simulations. This result was applied to the most straightforward application of the slingshot process, namely to the origin of extended radio sources.