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Stellar-mass binary black holes (BBH) may form, evolve, and merge within the dense environments of active galactic nuclei (AGN) disks, thereby contributing to the BBH population detected by gravitational wave (GW) observatories. Mergers…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-16 Wen-Long Xu , Yu-Zhe Li , Yi-Gu Chen , Hui Li , Wei-Hua Lei

We perform a series of high-resolution 2D hydrodynamical simulations of equal-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded in active galactic nucleus (AGN) accretion disks to study whether these binaries can be driven to merger by the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-05-05 Ya-Ping Li , Adam M. Dempsey , Shengtai Li , Hui Li , Jiaru Li

The astrophysical origin of gravitational wave (GW) events discovered by LIGO/VIRGO remains an outstanding puzzle. In active galactic nuclei (AGN), compact-object binaries form, evolve, and interact with a dense star cluster and a gas disk.…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-07-29 Hiromichi Tagawa , Zoltan Haiman , Bence Kocsis

Stellar-mass binary black hole mergers are poised to represent the majority of gravitational-wave (GW) observations by Advanced LIGO and Virgo. Probing their origin will be difficult due to the expected lack of electromagnetic emission and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-02-07 I. Bartos , Z. Haiman , Z. Marka , B. D. Metzger , N. C. Stone , S. Marka

Binary black holes (BBHs) are one of the endpoints of isolated binary evolution, and their mergers a leading channel for gravitational wave events. Here, using the evolutionary code \textsc{StarTrack}, we study the statistical properties of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-04-19 Rosalba Perna , Martyna Chruslinska , Alessandra Corsi , Krzysztof Belczynski

The detection of gravitational waves from merging black holes with masses $\sim\,80-150\,\mathrm{M_\odot}$ suggests that some proportion of black hole binary systems form hierarchically in dense astrophysical environments, as most stellar…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-10-08 Jordan Moncrieff , Fiona Panther

Several astrophysical scenarios have been proposed to explain the origin of the population of binary black hole (BBH) mergers detected in gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration. Among them, BBH mergers assembled…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-06-08 Giacomo Fragione , Sambaran Banerjee

Binary black holes embedded within the accretion disks that fuel active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising progenitors for the source of gravitational wave events detected by LIGO/VIRGO. Several recent studies have shown that when these…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-12-19 Josh Calcino , Adam M. Dempsey , Alexander J. Dittmann , Hui Li

The origin of the Binary Black Hole (BBH) mergers detected through Gravitational Waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) collaboration remains debated. One fundamental reason is our ignorance of their host environment, as the typical size…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-05-24 Niccolò Veronesi , Elena Maria Rossi , Sjoert van Velzen , Riccardo Buscicchio

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising environments for the assembly of merging binary black hole (BBH) systems. Interest in AGNs as nurseries for merging BBH is rising following the detection of gravitational waves from a BBH system…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-03-06 Avi Vajpeyi , Eric Thrane , Rory Smith , Barry McKernan , K. E. Saavik Ford

While the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) gravitational wave (GW) detectors have detected over 300 binary black hole (BBH) mergers to date, the first confirmation of an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart to such an event remains elusive. Previous…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-04 Tomás Cabrera , Antonella Palmese , Maya Fishbach

Accretion discs around super-massive black holes (SMBH) not only power active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but also host single and binary embedded stellar-mass black holes (EBHs) that grow rapidly from gas accretion. The merger of these EBHs…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-04-12 Yi-Xian Chen , Douglas N. C. Lin

We explore the evolution of stellar mass black hole binaries (BHBs) which are formed in the self-gravitating disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Hardening due to three-body scattering and gaseous drag are effective mechanisms that reduce…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-01-03 Nicholas C. Stone , Brian D. Metzger , Zoltan Haiman

If massive black holes (BHs) are ubiquitous in galaxies and galaxies experience multiple mergers during their cosmic assembly, then BH binaries should be common albeit temporary features of most galactic bulges. Observationally, the paucity…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-10-30 M. Colpi , M. Dotti , L. Mayer , S. Kazantzidis

Stellar mass, binary black hole (BBH) mergers dominates the sources of gravitational wave (GW) events so far detected by the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) experiment. The origin of these BBHs is unknown, and no electromagnetic (EM) counterpart has…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-03-28 Juan C. Rodríguez-Ramírez , Rodrigo Nemmen , Clécio R. Bom

The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising environments for producing binary black hole (BBH) mergers, which have been detected via gravitational waves (GW) with LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK). BBH mergers embedded in AGN…

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, LIGO, found direct evidence for double black hole binaries emitting gravitational waves. Galactic nuclei are expected to harbor the densest population of stellar-mass black holes. A…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-02-01 Imre Bartos , Bence Kocsis , Zoltán Haiman , Szabolcs Márka

Many stellar-mass Black Holes (sBHs) are expected to orbit supermassive black holes at galactic centers. For galaxies with Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), it is likely that the sBHs reside in a disk. We study the formation of sBH binaries via…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-03-15 Barak Rom , Re'em Sari , Dong Lai

The accretion disks that fuel active galactic nuclei (AGN) may house numerous stars and compact objects, formed in situ or captured from nearby star clusters. Embedded neutron stars and black holes may form binaries and eventually merge,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-10-31 Alexander J. Dittmann , Adam M. Dempsey , Hui Li

Ground-based gravitational wave (GW) observatories have detected approximately 200 binary black hole (BH) mergers. The astrophysical origin of these events are debated, with evidence suggesting that at least a subset originated from dynamic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-04-30 Hiromichi Tagawa , Zoltán Haiman , Bence Kocsis