Related papers: Misaligned gas discs around eccentric black-hole b…
In currently favoured hierarchical cosmologies, the formation of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) following galaxy mergers is unavoidable. Still, due the complex physics governing the (hydro)dynamics of the post-merger dense environment…
Luminous active galactic nuclei (AGN) and X-Ray binaries (XRBs) often contain geometrically thin, radiatively cooled accretion discs. According to theory, these are -- in many cases -- initially highly misaligned with the black hole…
Inspired by recent observations suggesting that the retrograde precession of the brown dwarf binary 2M1510 AB is consistent with induction by a polar circumbinary planet, we investigate the formation of such planets by studying the…
We report on key studies on the dynamics of black holes (BHs) in gas-rich galaxy mergers that underscore the vital role played by gas dissipation in promoting BH inspiral down to the smallest scales ever probed with use of high-resolution…
There are increasing interests in binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs), but merging binaries with separations smaller than ~1 light days (~10^2 gravitational radii for 10^8 Msun), which are rapidly evolving under control of gravitational…
The dynamics of two massive black holes in a rotationally supported nuclear disc of 10^8 solar masses is explored using N-Body/SPH simulations. Gas and star particles are co-present in the disc. Described by a Mestel profile, the disc has a…
In this work, we use general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations to explore the effect of spin orientation on the dynamics of gas in the vicinity of merging black holes. We present a suite of eight simulations of unequal-mass,…
Merging compact black-hole (BH) binaries are likely to exist in the nuclear star clusters around supermassive BHs (SMBHs), such as Sgr A$^\ast$. They may also form in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei. Such compact binaries can…
Understanding how supermassive black holes (SMBHs) pair and merge helps to inform predictions of off-center, dual, and binary AGN, and provides key insights into how SMBHs grow and co-evolve with their galaxy hosts. As the loudest known…
(abridged) We consider a secular orbital evolution of a supermassive binary black hole (SBBH) with unequal masses $M_p$ and $M_s < M_p$ in a central part of a non-spherical nuclear star cluster (NSC). When the mass of NSC inside the orbit…
We study the interplay between mass transfer, accretion and gravitational torques onto a black hole binary migrating in a self-gravitating, retrograde circumbinary disc. A direct comparison with an identical prograde disc shows that: (i)…
We study the interaction of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary and a standard radiatively efficient thin accretion disk. We examine steady-state configurations of the disk and migrating SMBH system, self-consistently accounting for…
In a recent paper Martin & Lubow showed that a circumbinary disc around an eccentric binary can undergo damped nodal oscillations that lead to the polar (perpendicular) alignment of the disc relative to the binary orbit. The disc angular…
The study of the interaction of a massive black hole binary with its gaseous environment is crucial in order to be able to predict merger rates and possible electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave signals. The evolution of the…
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…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries in gaseous and stellar environments are prime targets for next-generation space-based gravitational wave detectors. Yet, realistic accretion conditions under which these binary systems evolve are not…
It is usually thought that viscous torque works to align a circumbinary disk with the binary's orbital plane. However, recent numerical simulations suggest that the disk may evolve to a configuration perpendicular to the binary orbit…
Massive gas-rich galaxy discs at $z \sim 1-3$ host massive star-forming clumps with typical baryonic masses in the range $10^7-10^8$~M$_{\odot}$ which can affect the orbital decay and concurrent growth of supermassive black hole (BH) pairs.…
Circumbinary gas disks that are misaligned to the binary orbital plane evolve toward either a coplanar or a polar-aligned configuration with respect to the binary host. The preferred alignment depends on the dynamics of the disk: whether it…
We study the evolution of disk accretion during the merger of supermassive black hole binaries in galactic nuclei. In hierarchical galaxy formation models, the most common binaries are likely to arise from minor galactic mergers, and have…