Rotational Brownian Motion of a Massive Binary
Astrophysics
2009-11-07 v2 Condensed Matter
Abstract
The orientation of a massive binary undergoes a random walk due to gravitational encounters with field stars. The rotational diffusion coefficient for a circular-orbit binary is derived via scattering experiments. The binary is shown to reorient itself by an angle of order (m/M)^1/2 during the time that its semi-major axis shrinks appreciably, where M is the binary mass and m the perturber mass. Implications for the orientations of rotating black holes are discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0107569,
title = {Rotational Brownian Motion of a Massive Binary},
author = {David Merritt},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0107569},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
16 pages, 3 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 568, 2002