Related papers: Collisionless loss-cone refilling: there is no fin…
In this paper, we study the distribution functions that arise naturally during self-similar radial infall of collisionless matter. Such matter may be thought of either as stars or as dark matter particles. If a rigorous steady state is…
[ABRIDGED] We study supermassive black hole binary mergers driven by angular momentum loss to small-scale gas discs. Such binaries form after major galaxy mergers, but their fate is unclear since hardening through stellar scattering becomes…
Massive close binary stars with extremely small separations have been observed, and they are possible progenitors of gravitational-wave sources. The evolution of massive binaries in the protostellar accretion stage is key to understanding…
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are ubiquitous in galaxies with a sizable mass. It is expected that a pair of SMBHs originally in the nuclei of two merging galaxies would form a binary and eventually coalesce via a burst of gravitational…
We discuss the latest results of numerical simulations following the orbital decay of massive black hole pairs in galaxy mergers. We highlight important differences between gas-poor and gas-rich hosts, and between orbital evolution taking…
We study the long-term evolution of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) at the centers of galaxies using detailed scattering experiments to solve the full three-body problem. Ambient stars drawn from a isotropic Maxwellian distribution…
In this paper we perform a multi-messenger investigation of the efficiency of stellar scattering in tightening supermassive black hole binaries by jointly comparing models to the observed galaxy stellar core population and to results of…
Using high-resolution SPH numerical simulations, we investigate the effects of gas on the inspiral and merger of a massive black hole binary. This study is motivated by both observational and theoretical work that indicate the presence of…
We construct models of triaxial galactic nuclei containing central black holes using the method of orbital superposition, then verify their stability by advancing N-body realizations of the models forward in time. We assume a power-law form…
This paper presents results of a series of numerical N-body experiments that describe the merging of galaxy pairs containing a massive black hole in their core. The aim is to study the orbital evolution of the two black holes through the…
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…
Coalescing massive black hole binaries are produced by the mergers of galaxies. The final stages of the black hole coalescence produce strong gravitational radiation that can be detected by the space-borne LISA. In cases where the black…
Massive merging black holes will be the primary sources of powerful gravitational waves at low frequency, and will permit to test general relativity with candidate galaxies close to a binary black hole merger. In this paper we identify the…
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 follow the sinking of two massive black holes in a spherical stellar system where the black holes become bound under the influence of dynamical friction. Once bound, the binary hardens by three-body encounters with surrounding stars. We…
The consequences of nuclear black holes for the structure and dynamics of stellar spheroids are reviewed. Slow growth of a black hole in a pre-existing core produces a steep power-law density profile similar to the cusps seen in faint…
As gravitational wave detectors improve, observations of black hole (BH) mergers will provide the joint distribution of their masses and spins. This will be a critical benchmark to validate formation scenarios. Merging binary BHs formed…
We investigate the evolution of low mass (Md /Mb = 0.005) misaligned gaseous discs around eccentric supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries. These are expected to form from randomly oriented accretion events onto a SMBH binary formed in a…
Stars orbiting supermassive black holes can generate recurring accretion flares in repeating partial tidal disruption events (TDEs). Here we develop an efficient formalism for analyzing the time-dependent response of a star to the removal…
When galaxies collide, dynamical friction drives their central supermassive black holes close enought to each other such that gravitational radiation becomes the leading dissipative effect. Gravitational radiation takes away energy,…