Related papers: Modelling the host galaxies of binary compact obje…
The high rate of black hole (BH) mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo opened questions on their astrophysical origin. One possibility is the dynamical channel, in which binary formation and hardening is catalyzed by dynamical encounters in…
Galaxy mergers are fundamental drivers of galaxy evolution and black hole (BH) growth across cosmic time. We use the Horizon-AGN simulation to investigate the fraction of galaxy pairs, the merger fraction, and the galaxy merger rate over a…
Young star clusters are the most common birth-place of massive stars and are dynamically active environments. Here, we study the formation of black holes (BHs) and binary black holes (BBHs) in young star clusters, by means of 6000 N-body…
Massive black hole (MBH) binaries, formed as a result of galaxy mergers, are expected to harden by dynamical friction and three-body stellar scatterings, until emission of gravitational waves (GWs) leads to their final coalescence.…
Six gravitational wave events have been reported by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration (LVC), five of them associated with black hole binary (BHB) mergers and one with a double neutron star (DNS) merger, while the coalescence of a black…
Stellar mass black holes (BHs) are expected to segregate and form a steep density cusp around supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei. We follow the evolution of a multi-mass system of BHs and stars by numerically integrating…
In this study, we investigate the impact of modified gravity on the merger rate of compact binaries within dark-matter spikes surrounding super-massive black holes (SMBHs). Specifically, we calculate binary merger rates involving primordial…
The coalescence of massive black hole binaries (BHBs) in galactic mergers is the primary source of gravitational waves (GWs) at low frequencies. Current estimates of GW detection rates for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna and the…
During a giant eruption of a very massive star in the binary system, the companion star can accrete a large amount of mass that can change its properties and potentially its subsequent evolution. The effect depends on the companion mass,…
Binary black holes (BBHs) are thought to form in different environments, including the galactic field and (globular, nuclear, young and open) star clusters. Here, we propose a method to estimate the fingerprints of the main BBH formation…
Merging supermassive black hole binaries is expected as a consequence of galaxy mergers, yet the detailed evolution path and underlying merging mechanisms of these binaries are still subject to large theoretical uncertainties. In this work,…
We use hydrodynamic simulations to examine how the baryonic components of galaxies are assembled, focusing on the relative importance of mergers and smooth accretion in the formation of ~L_* systems. In our primary simulation, which models…
Compact binaries such as double neutron stars or a neutron star paired with a black-hole, are strong sources of gravitational waves during coalescence and also the likely progenitors of various electromagnetic phenomena, notably…
Mergers of compact objects may lead to different astrophysical phenomena: they may provide sources of observable gravitational radiation, and also may be connected with gamma-ray bursts. Estimate of the rate with which such mergers take…
Galaxy merger timescales are crucial for understanding and modeling galaxy formation in our hierarchically structured Universe. However, previous studies have reported widely varying dependencies of merger timescales on initial orbital…
With projects such as Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) and Pulsar Timing Arrays expected to detect gravitational waves from supermassive black hole mergers in the near future, it is key that we understand what we expect those…
We study the observational constraints on the cosmic evolution of the relationships between the massive black hole (MBH) mass (M_bh) and the stellar mass (M^*_sph; or velocity dispersion \sigma) of the host galaxy/spheroid. Assuming that…
[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…
Observational data show that the correlation between supermassive black holes (MBH) and galaxy bulge (Mbulge) masses follows a nearly linear trend, and that the correlation is strongest with the bulge rather than the total stellar mass…
We use a suite of semi-empirical models to predict galaxy merger rates and contributions to bulge growth as functions of merger mass, redshift, and mass ratio. The models use empirical halo occupation constraints to identify mergers,…