Related papers: Supernova Kicks and Misaligned Microquasars
Natal kicks and spins are characteristic properties of neutron stars (NSs) and black holes (BHs). Both offer valuable clues to dynamical processes during stellar core collapse and explosion. Moreover, they influence the evolution of stellar…
How black holes are formed remains an open and fundamental question in Astrophysics. Despite theoretical predictions, it lacks observations to understand whether the black hole formation experiences a supernova explosion. Here we report the…
Mass distribution of black holes identified through X-ray emission suggests a paucity of black holes in the mass range of 3 to 5 solar masses. Modified theories have been devised to explain this mass gap, and it is suggested that natal…
Aims. Motivated by the new determination of the distance to the microquasar GRO J1655-40 by Foellmi et al. (2006), we conduct a detailed study of the distribution of the atomic and molecular gas, and dust around the open cluster NGC 6242,…
The formation of close massive black-hole binaries is a challenge for binary evolutionary models, especially the intriguing system M33 X-7 which harbours one of the most massive stellar-mass black holes (16 solar masses) orbiting a 70 solar…
Merging binary black holes (BBHs) formed dynamically in dense star clusters are expected to have uncorrelated spin--orbit orientations since they are assembled through many random interactions. However, measured effective spins in BBHs…
High mass X-ray binaries (HMXRBs) like Cygnus X-1, host some of the most rapidly spinning black holes (BHs) known to date, reaching spin parameters $a \gtrsim 0.84$. However, there are several effects that can severely limit the maximum BH…
Black-hole (BH) binary mergers driven by gravitational perturbations of tertiary companions constitute an important class of dynamical formation channels for compact binaries detected by LIGO/VIRGO. Recent works have examined numerically…
Strong toroidal magnetic fields generated in stellar collapse can generate magneto-centrifugal jets in analogy to those found in simulations of black hole accretion and explain why all core collapse supernovae are found to be substantially…
When a binary star system is tidally disrupted by a supermassive black hole at a galactic nucleus, one star is ejected at a high speed while the other remains in a tightly bound orbit around the black hole. The cluster of tightly bound…
While the Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave experiments now regularly observe binary black hole mergers, the evolutionary origin of these events remains a mystery. Analysis of the binary black hole spin distribution may shed light…
If a black hole has a low spin value, it must double its mass to reach a high spin parameter. Although this is easily accomplished through mergers or accretion in the case of supermassive black holes in galactic centers, it is impossible…
Recent observations have revealed many new puzzles related to core-collapse supernovae, including the formation of magnetars and black holes and their possible GRB connections. We review our current understanding of the origin of pulsar…
We study ultrarelativistic encounters of two spinning, equal-mass black holes through simulations in full numerical relativity. Two initial data sequences are studied in detail: one that leads to scattering and one that leads to a grazing…
Close stellar binaries are prone to undergo a phase of stable mass transfer in which a star loses mass to its companion. Assuming that the donor star loses mass along the instantaneous interstellar axis, we derive the orbit-averaged…
Some fraction of compact binaries that merge within a Hubble time may have formed from two massive stars in isolation. For this isolated-binary formation channel, binaries need to survive two supernova (SN) explosions in addition to…
We present new results from a multi-wavelength (radio/infrared/optical/X-ray) study of the black hole X-ray binary GRO J1655-40 during its 2005 outburst. We detected, for the first time, mid-infrared emission at 24 um from the compact jet…
Transitions to high mass accretion rates in black hole X-ray binaries are associated with the ejection of powerful, relativistically-moving jets. The mechanism powering such events is thought to be linked to tapping of the angular momentum…
When a stellar binary encounters a spinning black hole, interesting phenomena might result due to the mutual interaction between the binary spin, orbital angular momentum and the black hole spin. Here we consider such encounters between an…
Recoil ``kicks'' induced by gravitational radiation are expected in the inspiral and merger of black holes. Recently the numerical relativity community has begun to measure the significant kicks found when both unequal masses and spins are…