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GW231123, the most massive binary black hole (BBH) merger detected by LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA, highlights the need to understand the origins of massive, high-spin stellar black holes (BHs). Dense star clusters provide natural environments for…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-11-12 Fulya Kıroğlu , Kyle Kremer , Frederic A. Rasio

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

The Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) channel for the formation of binary black hole (BBH) mergers has been previously studied as a potential formation channel for the merging compact binaries observed by the LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA (LVK) scientific…

We study the long-term evolution of two or more stellar black holes (BHs) on initially separated but unstable circular orbits around a supermassive BH (SMBH). Such a close-packed orbital configuration can naturally arise from BH migrations…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-08-17 Jiaru Li , Dong Lai , Laetitia Rodet

Recently, the LIGO-Virgo collaborations have reported the coalescence of a binary involving a black hole and a low-mass gap object (LMGO) with mass in the range $\sim2.5-5M_\odot$. Such detections, challenge our understanding of the black…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-08-11 Konstantinos Kritos , Ilias Cholis

The recent advanced LIGO/Virgo detections of gravitational waves (GWs) from stellar binary black hole (BBH) mergers, in particular GW190521, which is potentially associated with a quasar, have stimulated renewed interest in active galactic…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-08-11 Jian-Min Wang , Jun-Rong Liu , Luis C. Ho , Yan-Rong Li , Pu Du

The formation environments of merging binary black holes remain uncertain. While hierarchical assembly in dense stellar clusters has been widely explored as an explanation for black holes exceeding the stellar-mass limit, growth through gas…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-12 I. Bartos , Z. Haiman

Stars and stellar remnants orbiting a supermassive black hole (SMBH) can interact with an active galactic nucleus (AGN) disc. Over time, prograde orbiters (inclination $i<90^{\circ}$) decrease inclination, as well as semi-major axis $(a)$…

We investigate the properties of stars born via gravitational instability in accretion discs around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in active galactic nuclei (AGN), and how this varies with the SMBH mass, accretion rate, or viscosity. We…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-04-13 Andrea Derdzinski , Lucio Mayer

The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising locations for the merger of compact objects detected by gravitational wave (GW) observatories. Embedded within a baryon-rich, high density environment, mergers within AGN are…

Among the four black hole binary merger events detected by LIGO, six progenitor black holes have masses greater than 20\,$M_\odot$. The existence of such massive BHs calls for extreme metal-poor stars as the progenitors. An alternative…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-06-13 Shu-Xu Yi , K. S. Cheng , Ronald E. Taam

Compact objects (COs) can exist and evolve in an active galactic nuclei (AGN) disk, triggering a series of attractive CO-related multi-messenger events around a supermassive black hole. To better understand the nature of an embedded CO and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-05-24 Ken Chen , Jia Ren , Zi-Gao Dai

The frequency of compact object interactions in AGN discs is naturally tied to the number of objects embedded within it. We investigate the evolution of black holes in the nuclear stellar cluster on inclined orbits to the AGN disc by…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-09-17 Connar Rowan , Henry Whitehead , Gaia Fabj , Philip Kirkeberg , Martin E. Pessah , Bence Kocsis

Black hole mergers detectable with LIGO can occur in active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks. Here we parameterize the merger rates, the mass spectrum and the spin spectrum of black holes (BH) in AGN disks. The predicted merger rate spans $\sim…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-10-23 B. McKernan , K. E. S. Ford , J. Bellovary , N. W. C. Leigh , Z. Haiman , B. Kocsis , W. Lyra , M. -M. MacLow , B. Metzger , M. O'Dowd , S. Endlich , D. J. Rosen

Intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range $100$--$10^5\,M_\odot$, between black holes (BHs) formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2022-03-16 The LIGO Scientific Collaboration , the Virgo Collaboration , the KAGRA Collaboration

The astrophysical origin of gravitational wave (GW) transients is a timely open question in the wake of discoveries by LIGO/Virgo. In active galactic nuclei (AGNs), binaries form and evolve efficiently by interaction with a dense population…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-01-27 Hiromichi Tagawa , Bence Kocsis , Zoltan Haiman , Imre Bartos , Kazuyuki Omukai , Johan Samsing

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been proposed as plausible sites for hosting a sizable fraction of the binary black hole (BBH) mergers measured through gravitational waves (GWs) by the LIGO-Virgo-Kagra (LVK) experiment. These GWs could…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-11-20 J. C. Rodríguez-Ramírez , C. R. Bom , B. Fraga , R. Nemmen

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 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

Stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) embedded in active galactic nucleus (AGN) discs offer a distinct dynamical channel to produce black hole mergers detected in gravitational waves by LIGO/Virgo. To understand their orbital evolution…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-01-15 Rixin Li , Dong Lai