Related papers: Mergers of Stellar-Mass Black Holes in Nuclear Sta…
We perform N-body simulations on a multiple massive black hole (MBH) system in a host galaxy to derive the criteria for successive MBH merger. The calculations incorporate the dynamical friction by stars and general relativistic effects as…
Galaxy mergers trigger both star formation and accretion onto the central supermassive black hole. As a result of subsequent energetic feedback processes, it has long been proposed that star formation may be promptly extinguished in galaxy…
Galaxy mergers are capable of triggering both star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) and therefore may represent an important pathway in the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs). However, correlated…
Primordial black holes formed through the collapse of cosmological density fluctuations have been hypothesised as contributors to the dark matter content of the Universe. At the same time, their mergers could contribute to the recently…
With projects such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Pulsar Timing Arrays expected to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers in the near future, it is key that we understand what we expect those…
The capture and subsequent in--spiral of compact stellar remnants by central massive black holes, is one of the more interesting likely sources of gravitational radiation detectable by LISA. The relevant stellar population includes stellar…
Despite observed strong correlations between central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and star-formation in galactic nuclei, uncertainties exist in our understanding of their coupling. We present observations of the ratio of…
Nuclear star clusters around massive black holes are expected to be abundant in stellar mass black holes and black hole binaries. These binaries form a hierarchical triple system with the massive black hole at the center. Gravitational…
We investigate secular evolution in hierarchical quadruple systems as a formation channel of mass-gap black holes (with masses of about $3-5$ $M_{\odot}$) in systems that will eventually lead to binary black hole mergers detectable by…
Recently, advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) has detected black hole (BH) merger events, most of which are sourced by BHs more massive than $30~M_\odot$. Especially, the observation of GW170104 suggests…
There is significant observational evidence that a large fraction of galactic centers, including those in the Milky Way and M31, host a supermassive black hole (SMBH) embedded in a triaxial nuclear star cluster. In this work, we study the…
We review the state of the evidence for the existence and observational appearance of supermassive black hole binaries. Such objects are expected from standard hierarchical galaxy evolution to form after two galaxies, each containing a…
Motivated by the recent discoveries of binary black-hole mergers by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (Advanced LIGO), we investigate the prospects of ground-based detectors to perform a spectroscopic analysis…
Our current understanding of the stellar initial mass function and massive star evolution suggests that young globular clusters may have formed hundreds to thousands of stellar-mass black holes, the remnants of stars with initial masses…
Star clusters appear to be the ideal environment for the assembly of neutron star-neutron star (NS-NS) and black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binaries. These binaries are among the most interesting astrophysical objects, being potential…
Massive black holes appear to be present in the nuclei of almost all galaxies, but their genesis and evolution are not well understood. As astrophysical black holes are completely characterized by their masses and spins, the observed joint…
Young star clusters are the most common birth-place of massive stars and are dynamically active environments. Here, we study the formation of black holes (BHs) and binary black holes (BBHs) in young star clusters, by means of 6000 N-body…
The existence of supermassive black holes lurking in the centers of galaxies and of stellar binary systems containing a black hole with a few solar masses has been established beyond reasonable doubt. The idea that black holes of…
Primordial black holes may encode the conditions of the early universe, and may even constitute a significant fraction of cosmological dark matter. Their existence has yet to be established. However, black holes with masses below…
The high stellar densities in young compact star clusters, such as the star cluster R 136 in the 30 Doradus region, may lead to a large number of stellar collisions. Such collisions were recently found to be much more frequent than previous…