Related papers: Zoom-Whirl Orbits in Black Hole Binaries
The spin of the final black hole in the coalescence of nonspinning black holes is determined by the ``residual'' orbital angular momentum of the binary. This residual momentum consists of the orbital angular momentum that the binary is not…
Binary black holes occupy a special place in our quest for understanding the evolution of galaxies along cosmic history. If massive black holes grow at the center of (pre-)galactic structures that experience a sequence of merger episodes,…
In addition to producing loud gravitational waves (GW), the dynamics of a binary black hole system could induce emission of electromagnetic (EM) radiation by affecting the behavior of plasmas and electromagnetic fields in their vicinity. We…
High-accuracy binary black hole simulations are presented for black holes with spins anti-aligned with the orbital angular momentum. The particular case studied represents an equal-mass binary with spins of equal magnitude S/m^2=0.43757 \pm…
The first direct detections of gravitational waves from merging binary black holes open a unique window into the binary black hole formation environment. One promising environmental signature is the angular distribution of the black hole…
Coalescing binary black holes experience an impulsive kick due to anisotropic emission of gravitational waves. We discuss the dynamical consequences of the recoil accompanying massive black hole mergers. Recoil velocities are sufficient to…
We discuss the conditions under which plane electromagnetic and gravitational waves can be amplified by a rotating black hole due to superradiant scattering. We show, in particular, that amplification can occur for low-frequency waves with…
The component black holes (BHs) observed in gravitational-wave (GW) binary black hole (BBH) events tend to be more massive and slower spinning than those observed in black hole X-ray binaries (BH-XRBs). Without modeling their evolutionary…
This paper examines the possibility of floating or non-decaying orbits for extreme mass ratio binary black holes. In the adiabatic approximation, valid in the extreme mass ratio case, if the orbital flux lost due to gravitational radiation…
Stellar-mass binaries evolving in the vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) may be common in the universe, either in active galactic nuclei or in other astrophysical environments. Here, we study in detail the resonant excitation of…
The recent detections of gravitational waves from binary systems of black holes are in remarkable agreement with the predictions of General Relativity. In this pedagogical mini-review, I will go through the physics of the different phases…
We introduce a method to quantify the initial eccentricity, gravitational wave frequency, and mean anomaly of numerical relativity simulations that describe non-spinning black holes on moderately eccentric orbits. We demonstrate that this…
We discuss the properties of stellar mass black hole (BH) mergers induced by tidal encounters with a massive BH at galactic centres or potentially in dense star clusters. The tidal disruption of stellar binaries by a massive BH is known to…
Strong gravitational lensing occurs when photons pass through the vicinity of a black hole. We investigate this phenomenon in the context of a gravitational-wave event, specifically when a black hole is settling into its final state. The…
The observation of gravitational-wave signals from merging black-hole binaries enables direct measurement of the properties of the black holes. An individual observation allows measurement of the black-hole masses, but only limited…
We study the formation rate of binary black hole mergers formed through gravitational-wave emission between unbound, single black holes in globular clusters. While the formation of these binaries in very dense systems such as galactic…
We compute the gravitational waveform emitted during the transition from quasi-spherical inspiral to plunge, merger and ringdown for a system of two black holes in the extreme mass ratio limit, where the primary is spinning and the…
We study the imprints of new ultralight particles on the gravitational-wave signals emitted by binary black holes. Superradiant instabilities may create large clouds of scalar or vector fields around rotating black holes. The presence of a…
We use recent results in binary stellar evolution to argue that binaries with at least one black hole dominate the rate of compact-object mergers. Two phenomena generally attributable to such mergers, gamma-ray bursts and gravity-wave…
We study the dynamics of a binary orbiting a supermassive black hole (SMBH), focusing on both binary scattering in unbound orbits and eccentric von Zeipel-Lidov-Kozai (vZLK) oscillations in bound orbits. The motion is described in a local…