Related papers: Alignment of supermassive black hole binary orbits…
We revisit the three black hole scenario with numerical relativity techniques to study hierarchical configurations where the inner binary contains highly spinning black holes. We find that the merger time of the binary gets a delay (with a…
We model the overall shape of an accretion disc in a semi-detached binary system in which mass is transfered on to a spinning black hole the spin axis of which is misaligned with the orbital rotation axis. We assume the disc is in a steady…
Determining the final spin of a black-hole (BH) binary is a question of key importance in astrophysics. Modelling this quantity in general is made difficult by the fact that it depends on the 7-dimensional space of parameters characterizing…
We present new numerical-relativity simulations of eccentric merging black holes with initially antiparallel spins lying in the orbital plane (the so-called \emph{superkick} configuration). Binary eccentricity boosts the recoil of the…
We consider the alignment torque between a spinning black hole and an accretion disc whose angular momenta are misaligned. This situation must hold initially in almost all gas accretion events on to supermassive black holes, and may occur…
A circumbinary disc around a pair of merging stellar-mass black holes may be shocked and heated during the recoil of the merged hole, causing a near-simultaneous electromagnetic counterpart to the gravitational wave event. The shocks occur…
In this paper we continue the first ever study of magnetized mini-disks coupled to circumbinary accretion in a supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) approaching merger reported in Bowen et al. 2018. We extend this simulation from 3 to 12…
Knowledge of the spin of the black hole resulting from the merger of a generic black-hole binary is of great importance for studying the cosmological evolution of supermassive black holes. Several attempts have been made to model the spin…
The inspiral and merger of a binary black hole system generally leads to an asymmetric distribution of emitted radiation, and hence a recoil of the remnant black hole directed opposite to the net linear momentum radiated. The recoil…
Supermassive black holes (BH) accrete gas from their surroundings and coalesce with companions during galaxy mergers, and both processes change the BH mass and spin. By means of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations of galaxies, either…
Dynamical interactions in dense star clusters could significantly influence the properties of black holes, leaving imprints on their gravitational-wave signatures. While previous studies have mostly focused on repeated black hole mergers…
Spin parameters of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries are currently being estimated by fitting the X-ray continuum spectra of their accretion disk emission. For this method, it is necessary to know the inclination of the…
Angular momentum transport in high-mass stars is commonly modeled by extrapolating the behavior of better-observed low-mass stars. According to the conventional picture, the cores of most black hole progenitors lose almost all of their…
The LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave detectors have uncovered binary black hole systems with definitively nonzero spins, as well as systems with significant spin residing in the more massive black hole of the pair. We investigate the…
Several groups have recently computed the gravitational radiation recoil produced by the merger of two spinning black holes. The results suggest that spin can be the dominant contributor to the kick, with reported recoil speeds of hundreds…
Theoretical studies of angular momentum transport suggest that isolated stellar-mass black holes are born with negligible dimensionless spin magnitudes $\chi \lesssim 0.01$. However, recent gravitational-wave observations indicate $\gtrsim…
We review recent works on the dynamics of circumbinary accretion, including time variability, angular momentum transfer between the disk and the binary, and the secular evolution of accreting binaries. These dynamics can impact stellar…
A black hole binary approaching merger undergoes changes in its inspiral rate as energy and angular momentum are lost from the orbits into the horizons. This effect strengthens as the black holes come closer. We use numerical relativity…
Compact binary coalescences are the most promising sources of gravitational waves (GWs) for ground based detectors. Binary systems containing one or two spinning black holes are particularly interesting due to spin-orbit (and eventual…
We have investigated, both analytically and numerically, accreting supermassive black hole binaries as they inspiral due to gravitational radiation to elucidate the decoupling of binaries from their disks and inform future multi-messenger…