Related papers: Unstable binary black-hole spins: post-Newtonian t…
Binary black holes with spins that are aligned with the orbital angular momentum do not precess. However, post-Newtonian calculations predict that "up-down" binaries, in which the spin of the heavier (lighter) black hole is aligned…
Binary black holes on quasicircular orbits with spins aligned with their orbital angular momentum have been testbeds for analytic and numerical relativity for decades, not least because symmetry ensures that such configurations are…
Binary black holes in which both spins are aligned with the binary's orbital angular momentum do not precess. However, the up-down configuration, in which the spin of the heavier (lighter) black hole is aligned (anti-aligned) with the…
The relativistic spin-precession equations for black-hole binaries have four different equilibrium solutions that correspond to systems where the two individual black hole spins are either aligned or anti-aligned with the orbital angular…
Black-hole binary spin precession admits equilibrium solutions corresponding to systems with (anti-) aligned spins. Among these, binaries in the up-down configuration, where the spin of the heavier (lighter) black hole is co- (counter-)…
Binary black holes with misaligned spins will generically induce both precession and nutation of the orbital angular momentum $\bf{L}$ about the total angular momentum $\bf{J}$. These phenomena modulate the phase and amplitude of the…
Binary black-hole systems are expected to be important sources of gravitational waves for upcoming gravitational-wave detectors. If the spins are not colinear with each other or with the orbital angular momentum, these systems exhibit…
Orbital eccentricity and spin precession are precious observables to infer the formation history of binary black holes with gravitational-wave data. We present a post-Newtonian, multi-timescale analysis of the binary dynamics able to…
The inspiral of binary black holes is governed by gravitational radiation reaction at binary separations r < 1000 M, yet it is too computationally expensive to begin numerical-relativity simulations with initial separations r > 10 M.…
We present new insights into the phenomenology of post-Newtonian spin precession in black-hole binaries. Using multi-timescale methods, previous work has shown that the precession and nutation dynamics in such systems can be classified into…
The spin precession of binary black holes (BBHs) that originate from isolated high-mass binary stars is determined by the interplay of phenomena such as tides, winds, accretion, common-envelope evolution, natal kicks, and stellar…
Recent studies of accretion onto supermassive black hole binaries suggest that much, perhaps most, of the matter eventually accretes onto one hole or the other. If so, then for binaries whose inspiral from ~1 pc to 0.001 - 0.01 pc is driven…
Within the framework of 2PN black-hole binary spin precession, we explore configurations where one of the two spins oscillates from being completely aligned with the orbital angular momentum to being completely anti-aligned with it during a…
We investigate the detectability of sub-dominant spin effects in merging black-hole binaries using current gravitational-wave data. Using a phenomenological model that separates the spin dynamics into precession (azimuthal motion) and…
A typical stellar mass black hole with a lighter companion is shown to succumb to a chaotic precession of the orbital plane. As a result, the optimal candidates for the direct detection of gravitational waves by Earth based interferometers…
Based on the secular spin evolution of black holes, neutron stars, gravastars, or boson stars in precessing compact binaries on eccentric orbit, we identify the aligned and more generic coplanar configurations of the spins and orbital…
We study the spin dynamics of individual black holes in a binary system. In particular we focus on the polar precession of spins and the possibility of a complete flip of spins with respect to the orbital plane. We perform a full numerical…
Binary-black-hole orbits precess when the black-hole spins are mis-aligned with the binary's orbital angular momentum. The apparently complicated dynamics can in most cases be described as simple precession of the orbital angular momentum…
Gravitational waves from coalescing binary black holes encode the evolution of their spins prior to merger. In the post-Newtonian regime and on the precession timescale, this evolution has one of three morphologies, with the spins either…
We analyze in detail the spin precession equations in binary black hole systems, when the tidal torque on a Kerr black hole due to quadrupole-monopole coupling is taken into account. We show that completing the precession equations with…