Related papers: Maximum black-hole spin from quasi-circular binary…
We study the collision of two highly boosted equal mass, nonrotating black holes with generic impact parameter. We find such systems to exhibit zoom-whirl behavior when fine tuning the impact parameter. Near the threshold of immediate…
In a recent paper arXiv:0709.0299, we introduced a spin expansion that provides a simple yet powerful way to understand aspects of binary black hole (BBH) merger. This approach relies on the symmetry properties of initial and final…
Black hole spins affect the efficiency of the "classical" accretion processes, hence the radiative output from quasars. Spins also determine how much energy is extractable from the hole itself. Recently it became clear that massive black…
The most massive black holes observed in the Universe weigh up to $\sim 10^{10} \, \mathrm{M_{\odot}}$, nearly independent of redshift. Reaching these final masses likely required copious accretion and several major mergers. Employing a…
Massive black hole (MBH) binary inspiral time scales are uncertain, and their spins are even more poorly constrained. Spin misalignment, along with unequal mass ratios and spin magnitudes, introduces asymmetry in the gravitational…
Near extremal Kerr black holes are subject to the Thorne limit $a<a^*_{\rm lim}=0.998$ in the case of thin disc accretion, or some generalized version of this in other disc geometries. However any limit that differs from the thermodynamics…
The lifetime of the remnant produced by the merger of two neutron stars can provide a wealth of information on the equation of state of nuclear matter and on the processes leading to the electromagnetic counterpart. Hence, it is essential…
We study the energetics of a black hole-accretion disk system with magnetic connection: a Keplerian disk is connected to a Kerr black hole by a large-scale magnetic field going through the transition region. We assume that the magnetic…
Supermassive black holes are nowadays believed to reside in most local galaxies. Accretion of gas and black hole mergers play a fundamental role in determining the two parameters defining a black hole: mass and spin. I briefly review here…
We demonstrate that gas disks around binary systems might deliver gas to the binary components only when the circumbinary disk is relatively warm. We present new grid-based hydrodynamics simulations, performed with the binary on the grid…
By performing two-dimensional axisymmetric general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamics simulations with spin parameter $a^*$ varying from -0.9 to 0.9, we investigate the dependence on the black hole spin of the energy flow from…
In dense stellar environments, the merger products of binary black hole mergers may undergo additional mergers. These hierarchical mergers are predicted to have higher masses than the first generation of black holes made from stars. The…
The spin of the massive black hole (BH) at the center of the Milky Way, SgrA$^*$, has been poorly constrained so far. We place an upper limit on the spin of SgrA$^*$ based on the spatial distribution of the S-stars, which are arranged in…
In contrast to energy and angular momentum, electric charge is conserved in mergers of charged black holes. This opens up the possibility for the remnant to have Kerr-Newman parameter $\chi^{2} + \lambda^{2}$ greater than 1 (with $\chi$ and…
In this paper, we report on the first 3D general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamic simulations of large supercritical accretion discs that are tilted with respect to the black hole spin axis. We explore a range of black hole spin…
The compact primary in the X-ray binary Cygnus X-1 was the first black hole to be established via dynamical observations. We have recently determined accurate values for its mass and distance, and for the orbital inclination angle of the…
We performed a series of 1381 full numerical simulations of high energy collision of black holes to search for the maximum recoil velocity after their merger. We consider equal mass binaries with opposite spins pointing along their orbital…
The spins of merging binary black holes offer insights into their formation history. Recently it has been argued that in isolated binary evolution of two massive stars the firstborn black hole is slowly rotating, whilst the progenitor of…
In numerical simulations of black hole binaries, Pretorius and Khurana [Class. Quant. Grav. {\bf 24}, S83 (2007)] have observed critical behaviour at the threshold between scattering and immediate merger. The number of orbits scales as…
Accretion in the nuclei of active galaxies may occur chaotically. This can produce accretion discs which are counter-rotating or strongly misaligned with respect to the spin of the central supermassive black hole (SMBH), or the axis of a…