Related papers: Busting Up Binaries: Encounters Between Compact Bi…
We develop a formalism for studying the dynamics of massive black hole binaries embedded in gravitationally-bound stellar cusps, and study the binary orbital decay by three-body interactions, the impact of stellar slingshots on the density…
We study the evolution of a massive black hole pair in a rotationally supported nuclear disc. The distributions of stars and gas mimic the nuclear region of a gas-rich galaxy merger remnant. Using high-resolution SPH simulations, we follow…
The couplings between supermassive black-hole binaries and their environments within galactic nuclei have been well studied as part of the search for solutions to the final parsec problem. The scattering of stars by the binary or the…
With the hundreds of merging binary black hole (BH) signals expected to be detected by LIGO/Virgo, LISA and other instruments in the next few years, the modeling of astrophysical channels that lead to the formation of compact-object…
Stellar-mass binary black holes may have circumbinary disks if formed through common-envelope evolution or within gaseous environments. Disks can drive binaries into wider and more eccentric orbits, while gravitational waves harden and…
Mergers of black-hole binaries are expected to release large amounts of energy in the form of gravitational radiation. However, binary evolution models predict merger rates too low to be of observational interest. In this paper we explore…
"Hard" massive black hole (MBH) binaries embedded in steep stellar cusps can shrink via three-body slingshot interactions. We show that this process will inevitably be accompanied by a burst of stellar tidal disruptions, at a rate that can…
Eccentric mergers are a signature of the dynamical formation channel of binary black holes (BBHs) in dense stellar environments and hierarchical triple systems. Here, we investigate the formation of eccentric mergers via binary-single…
We use a hybrid N-body program to study the evolution of massive black hole binaries in the centers of galaxies, mainly to understand the factors affecting the binary eccentricity, the response of the galaxy to the binary merger, and the…
We simulate black hole binary interactions to examine the probability of mergers and black hole growth and gravitational radiation signals using a specific initial distribution of masses for black holes in globular clusters and a simple…
Stellar-mass black hole binaries (BHBs) near supermassive black holes (SMBH) in galactic nuclei undergo eccentricity oscillations due to gravitational perturbations from the SMBH. Previous works have shown that this channel can contribute…
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 present the first systematic study of strong binary-single and binary-binary black hole interactions with the inclusion of general relativity. When including general relativistic effects in strong encounters, dissipation of orbital…
Black hole (BH) triples represent one of the astrophysical pathways for BH mergers in the Universe detectable by LIGO and VIRGO. We study the formation of BH triples via binary-binary encounters in dense clusters, showing that one-third of…
Orbital eccentricity is one of the most robust discriminators for distinguishing between dynamical and isolated formation scenarios of binary black hole mergers using gravitational-wave observatories such as LIGO and Virgo. Using…
Hills breakup of binary systems allows massive black holes (MBH) to produce hyper-velocity stars (HVSs) and tightly bound stars. The long timescale of orbital relaxation means that binaries must spend numerous orbits around the MBH before…
Recent gravitational wave observations include possible detections of black hole - neutron star binary mergers. As with binary black hole mergers, numerical simulations help characterize the sources. For binary systems with neutron star…
We present the first systematic study on how distant weak interactions impact the dynamical evolution of merging binary black holes (BBHs) in dense stellar clusters. Recent studies indicate that dense clusters are likely to significantly…
We study the number and interaction rates of supermassive black holes in galactic bulges as predicted by hierarchical models of galaxy formation in which the spheroidal components of galaxies are formed by mergers. In bright ellipticals,…
High-density cusps of compact remnants are expected to form around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei via dynamical friction and two-body relaxation. Due to the high density, binaries in orbit around the SMBH can frequently…