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With the goal of bringing theory, particularly numerical relativity, to bear on an astrophysical problem of critical interest to gravitational wave observers we introduce a model for coalescence radiation from binary black hole systems. We…
We present cosmological N-body resimulations of the assembly of the Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in rich clusters. At $z=2$ we populate dark matter subhalos with self-gravitating stellar systems whose abundance and structure match…
The possible existence of primordial black holes in the stellar mass window has received considerable attention because their mergers may contribute to current and future gravitational-wave detections. Primordial black hole mergers,…
The growth of supermassive black holes appears to be driven by galaxy mergers, violent merger-free processes and/or `secular' processes. In order to quantify the effects of secular evolution on black hole growth, we study a sample of active…
Merging galaxy clusters present a unique opportunity to study the properties of dark matter in an astrophysical context. These are rare and extreme cosmic events in which the bulk of the baryonic matter becomes displaced from the dark…
Coalescing massive Black Hole binaries are the strongest and probably the most important gravitational wave sources in the LISA band. The spin and orbital precessions bring complexity in the waveform and make the likelihood surface richer…
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…
We use hydrodynamical simulations to study the color transformations induced by star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) during major mergers of spiral galaxies. Our modeling accounts for radiative cooling, star formation, and…
We present the results of the first multi-scale N-Body+SPH simulations of merging galaxies containing central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and having a spatial resolution of only a few parsecs. Strong gas inflows associated with…
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…
In symmetric gravitating systems experiencing rapid mass loss, particle orbits change almost instantaneously, which can lead to the development of a sharply contoured density profile, including singular caustics for collisionless systems.…
We model the dynamical evolution of primordial black holes (BHs) in dense star clusters using a simplified treatment of stellar dynamics in which the BHs are assumed to remain concentrated in an inner core, completely decoupled from the…
Two-body relaxation may drive stars onto near-radial orbits around a massive black hole, resulting in a tidal disruption event (TDE). In some circumstances, stars are unlikely to undergo a single terminal disruption, but rather to have a…
The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH…
We present preliminary results from self-consistent, high resolution direct {\it N}-body simulations of massive black hole binaries in mergers of galactic nuclei. The dynamics of the black hole binary includes the full Post-Newtonian…
(Abridged) To gain insight into the dynamical influence of a supermassive black hole binary on a circumbinary accretion disk, we investigate the binary and viscous torque densities throughout such a disk, with emphasis on the final density…
In a series of recent papers, a new formalism has been developed that explains the inner structure of dark matter halos as collisionless, dissipationless systems assembled through mergers and accretion at the typical cosmological rate.…
In the high density cores of globular clusters, multibody interactions are expected to be common, with the result that black holes in binaries are hardened by interactions. It was shown by Sigurdsson & Hernquist (1993) and others that 10…
Current searches for compact binary mergers by ground-based gravitational-wave detectors assume for simplicity the two bodies are not spinning. If the binary contains compact objects with significant spin, then this can reduce the…
Anisotropic gravitational radiation from a coalescing black hole binary can impart a recoil velocity of up to several hundred km/s to the remnant black hole. We examine the effects of recoiling massive black holes on their host stellar…