Related papers: Circumbinary Disk Accretion into Spinning Black Ho…
Parsec-scale separation supermassive black hole binaries in the centre of gas-rich galaxy merger remnants could be surrounded by massive circumbinary discs (CBDs). Black hole mass and spin evolution during the gas-rich binary inspiral are…
We explore the hardening of a massive black hole binary embedded in a circum-binary gas disc when the binary and the gas are coplanar and the gas is counter-rotating. The secondary black hole, revolving in the direction opposite to the gas,…
When an accretion disk surrounds a binary rotating in the same sense, the binary exerts strong torques on the gas. Analytic work in the 1D approximation indicated that these torques sharply diminish or even eliminate accretion from the disk…
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…
Hierarchical structure formation inevitably leads to the formation of supermassive binary black holes (BBHs) with a sub-parsec separation in galactic nuclei. However, to date there has been no unambiguous detection of such systems. In an…
In this paper we continue the first ever study of magnetized mini-disks coupled to circumbinary accretion in a supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) approaching merger reported in Bowen et al. 2018. We extend this simulation from 3 to 12…
A near-equal mass binary black hole can clear a central cavity in a circumbinary accretion disk; however, previous works have revealed accretion streams entering this cavity. Here we use 2D hydrodynamical simulations to study the accretion…
Recent simulations show that the eccentricity of supermassive binary black hole with intermediate mass ratio could grow toward near unity through gravitational interaction with the stellar background in the merging remnant after two…
Circumbinary disks crucially affect the orbital and electromagnetic properties of binary systems across the universe, from stars in our galactic neighborhood to supermassive black hole binaries formed as the result of tumultuous galactic…
We perform magnetohydrodynamic simulations in full general relativity of disk accretion onto nonspinning black hole binaries with mass ratio 36:29. We survey different disk models which differ in their scale height, total size and magnetic…
In this Letter we revisit arguments suggesting that the Bardeen-Petterson effect can coalign the spins of a central supermassive black hole binary accreting from a circumbinary (or circumnuclear) gas disc. We improve on previous estimates…
We present the first three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a circumbinary disk surrounding an equal mass binary. The binary maintains a fixed circular orbit of separation $a$. As in previous hydrodynamical simulations,…
We review recent works on the dynamics of circumbinary accretion, including time variability, angular momentum transfer between the disk and the binary, and the secular evolution of accreting binaries. These dynamics can impact stellar…
We report on simulations in general relativity of magnetized disks onto black hole binaries. We vary the binary mass ratio from 1:1 to 1:10 and evolve the systems when they orbit near the binary-disk decoupling radius. We compare (surface)…
We investigate the dynamics of a circumbinary disc that responds to the loss of mass and to the recoil velocity of the black hole produced by the merger of a binary system of supermassive black holes. We perform the first two-dimensional…
[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…
Much of the parameter space relevant to the evolution of astrophysical circumbinary accretion discs remains unexplored. We have carried out a suite of circumbinary disc simulations surveying both disc thickness and kinematic viscosity,…
Many galaxies are expected to harbor binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in their centers. Their interaction with the surrounding gas results in accretion and exchange of angular momentum via tidal torques, facilitating binary inspiral.…
We present a two-dimensional grid-based hydrodynamic simulation of a thin, viscous, locally-isothermal corotating disk orbiting an equal-mass Newtonian binary point mass on a fixed circular orbit. We study the structure of the disk after…
Black holes of mass M must have a spin angular momentum S below the Kerr limit chi = S/M^2 < 1, but whether astrophysical black holes can attain this limiting spin depends on their accretion history. Gas accretion from a thin disk limits…