Abstract: Despite eight years since the initial detection of gravitational waves, the astrophysical origin of these phenomena remains elusive.
Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in a novel gravitational wave formation pathway: the active galactic nuclei (AGN) channel.
I will begin by providing an overview of the current status of gravitational wave detections, the primary astrophysical mechanisms driving the pairing and coalescence of black holes, and the observational signatures crucial for distinguishing between various formation scenarios. I will then describe the key features of the AGN channel, discuss our ongoing efforts in modeling compact objects within accretion disks in AGNs, and highlight the primary challenges associated with modeling black hole-gas disk interactions. Partially based on: arXiv:2403.00060, arXiv:2312.13281