Related papers: A General Formula for Black Hole Gravitational Wav…
The centers of most known galaxies host supermassive black holes (SMBHs). In orbit around these black holes are a centrally-concentrated distribution of stars, both in single and in binary systems. Occasionally, these stars are perturbed…
We evolve a binary black hole system bearing a mass ratio of $q=m_1/m_2=2/3$ and individual spins of $S^z_1/m_1^2=0.95$ and $S^z_2/m_2^2=-0.95$ in a configuration where the large black hole has its spin antialigned with the orbital angular…
We calculate the linear momentum flux from merging black holes (BHs) with arbitrary masses and spin orientations, using the effective-one-body (EOB) model. This model includes an analytic description of the inspiral phase, a short merger,…
Active galaxies and quasers are believed to harbour Black Holes at their centers and at the same time produce cosmic radio jets through which immense amount of matter and energy are ejected out of the core of the galaxy. In our work we…
Black holes play a fundamental role in modern physics. They have characteristic oscillation modes, called quasinormal modes. Past studies have shown that these modes are important to our understanding of the dynamics of astrophysical black…
In the last stages of a black hole merger, the binary can experience a recoil due to asymmetric emission of gravitational radiation. Recent numerical relativity simulations suggest that the recoil velocity can be as high as a few thousands…
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…
Gravitational waves emitted by distorted black holes---such as those arising from the coalescence of two neutron stars or black holes---carry not only information about the corresponding spacetime but also about the underlying theory of…
The orbital decay of massive black holes in galaxies in the aftermath of mergers is at the heart of whether massive black holes successfully pair and merge, leading to emission of low-frequency gravitational waves. The role of dynamical…
We show that black holes accreting at or above the Eddington rate probably produce winds which are optically thick in the continuum, whether in quasars or X-ray binaries. The photospheric radius and outflow speed are proportional to \mo^2…
The low-energy dynamics of any system admitting a continuum of static configurations is approximated by slow motion in moduli (configuration) space. Here, following Ferrell and Eardley, this moduli space approximation is utilized to study…
Massive black holes have been discovered in all closely examined galaxies with high velocity dispersion. The case is not as clear for lower-dispersion systems such as low-mass galaxies and globular clusters. Here we suggest that above a…
One of the most fundamental results of general relativity is that the event horizon of black hole is purely ingoing. On the other hand, semiclassical-gravity effects, such as particle creation and the quantization of black-hole area,…
We use simulations of hydrodynamics coupled with full general relativity to investigate the gravitational waves produced by a star colliding with a massive black hole when the star's tidal disruption radius lies far outside of the black…
Gravitational wave echos from the coalescence of black hole binaries are often viewed as signals beyond general relativity or standard model. In this work, we show that these echos are inevitable in the black holes coalescence described by…
Integrating trajectories of low-mass X-ray binaries containing black holes within the Galactic potential, Repetto, Davies & Sigurdsson recently showed that the large distances of some systems above the Galactic plane can only be explained…
We establish a generic, fully-relativistic formalism to study gravitational-wave emission by extreme-mass-ratio systems in spherically-symmetric, non-vacuum black-hole spacetimes. The potential applications to astrophysical setups range…
We measure the gravitational recoil for unequal-mass-black- hole-binary mergers, with the larger BH having spin a/m^H=0.8, and the smaller BH non-spinning. We choose our configurations such that, initially, the spins lie on the orbital…
It is now widely accepted that most galaxies undergo an active phase, during which a central super-massive black hole generates vast radiant luminosities through the gravitational accretion of gas. Winds launched from a rotating accretion…
Gravitational waves can teach us not only about sources and the environment where they were generated, but also about the gravitational interaction itself. Here we study the features of gravitational radiation produced during the scattering…