Related papers: Endpoint of the up-down instability in precessing …
We conduct a descriptive analysis of the multipolar structure of gravitational-radiation waveforms from equal-mass aligned-spin mergers, following an approach first presented in the complementary context of nonspinning black holes of…
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,…
We study linearized perturbations of Myers-Perry black holes in d=7, with two of the three angular momenta set to be equal, and show that instabilities always appear before extremality. Analogous results are expected for all higher odd d.…
We consider the interaction between a binary system (e.g. two supermassive black holes or two stars) and an external accretion disc with misaligned angular momentum. This situation occurs in galaxy merger events involving supermassive black…
Measuring the distribution of spin tilts-the angles between the spin vectors and the binary orbital angular momentum-in stellar-mass binary black holes detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA would provide valuable insight into their astrophysical…
We describe early success in the evolution of binary black hole spacetimes with a numerical code based on a generalization of harmonic coordinates. Indications are that with sufficient resolution this scheme is capable of evolving binary…
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 study the effect of external companion on the orbital and spin evolution of merging black-hole (BH) binaries. An sufficiently close by and inclined companion can excite Lidov-Kozai (LK) eccentricity oscillations in the binary, thereby…
The possible formation mechanisms of massive close binary black holes (BHs) that can merge in the Hubble time to produce powerful gravitational wave bursts detected during advanced LIGO O1 and O2 science runs include the evolution from…
Assessing the stability of higher-dimensional rotating black holes requires a study of linearized gravitational perturbations around such backgrounds. We study perturbations of Myers-Perry black holes with equal angular momenta in an odd…
In general, when gas accretes on to a supermassive black hole binary it is likely to have no prior knowledge of the binary angular momentum. Therefore a circumbinary disc forms with a random inclination angle, theta, to the binary. It is…
We evolve a set of 32 equal-mass black-hole binaries with collinear spins (with intrinsic spin magnitudes $|\vec{S}_{1,2}/m^2_{1,2}|=0.8$) to study the effects of precession in the highly nonlinear plunge and merger regimes. We compare the…
Nearly 210 binary black hole (BBH) mergers have been observed by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network during its four observing runs. Generic BBHs are spinning, and their spins are misaligned with the orbital angular momentum $\vec{L}$. These…
Massive spin-2 fields, which arise in proposed extensions of the standard model of particle physics and general relativity, give rise to a superradiant instability around spinning black holes. We study the nonlinear evolution of this…
LIGO's detection of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers was an unexpected surprise that immediately raised the question - what is the origin of these black hole binaries? The "simplest" scenario is evolution of field massive…
The individual component spins of binary black holes (BBHs) are difficult to resolve using gravitational-wave observations but carry key signatures of the processes shaping their formation and evolution. Recent analyses have found…
Astrophysically realistic black holes may have spins that are nearly extremal (i.e., close to 1 in dimensionless units). Numerical simulations of binary black holes are important tools both for calibrating analytical templates for…
Repeated black-hole mergers in dense stellar clusters are a plausible mechanism to populate the predicted gap in black hole masses due to the pair-instability supernova process. These hierarchical mergers carry distinct spin characteristics…
GW200115 was the second merger of a black hole and a neutron star confidently detected through gravitational waves. Inference on the signal allows for a large black hole spin misaligned with the orbital angular momentum, but shows little…
We present results on the mass, spin, and redshift distributions with phenomenological population models using the ten binary black hole mergers detected in the first and second observing runs completed by Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo.…