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Large dark matter overdensities can form around black holes of astrophysical and primordial origin as they form and grow. This "dark dress" inevitably affects the dynamical evolution of binary systems, and induces a dephasing in the…
Short-period massive binary stars are predicted to undergo chemically homogeneous evolution (CHE), making them prime candidates for producing binary black holes (BBHs) that may merge within the age of the Universe. Most of these binaries…
Modeling the late inspiral and merger of supermassive black holes is central to understanding accretion processes and the conditions under which electromagnetic emission accompanies gravitational waves. We use fully general relativistic,…
Binary black holes occupy a special place in our quest for understanding the evolution of galaxies along cosmic history. If massive black holes grow at the center of (pre-)galactic structures that experience a sequence of merger episodes,…
Gravitational waves (GW) from eccentric binaries have intricate signals encoding important features about the location, creation and evolution of the sources. Eccentricity shortens the merger time, making the emitted GW statistically…
The detection of a subsolar object in a compact binary merger is regarded as one of the most compelling signatures of a population of primordial black holes (PBHs). We critically examine whether such systems can be distinguished from…
In this thesis we consider the data analysis problem of detecting gravitational waves emitted by inspiraling binary systems. Detection of gravitational waves will open a new window on the Universe enabling direct detection of systems such…
Primordial black holes formed through the collapse of cosmological density fluctuations have been hypothesised as contributors to the dark matter content of the Universe. At the same time, their mergers could contribute to the recently…
Since gravitational and electromagnetic waves from a compact binary coalescence carry independent information about the source, the joint observation is important for understanding the physical mechanisms of the emissions. Rapid detection…
Several models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict the existence of new ultralight bosons. This thesis investigates a way to discover such particles through observations of gravitational waves from binary black holes. This is…
Binary black holes are thought to form primarily via two channels: isolated evolution and dynamical formation. The component masses, spins, and eccentricity of a binary black hole system provide clues to its formation history. We focus on…
Stellar mass black hole binaries have individual masses between 10-80 solar masses. These systems may emit gravitational waves at frequencies detectable at Megaparsec distances by space-based gravitational wave observatories. In a previous…
Black hole (BH) mergers driven by gravitational perturbations of external companions constitute an important class of formation channels for merging BH binaries detected by LIGO. We have studied the orbital and spin evolution of binary BHs…
In modified gravity models that allow for additional non-compact spacetime dimensions, energy from gravitational waves can leak into these extra spacetime dimensions, leading to a reduction in the amplitude of the observed gravitational…
Largely motivated by the development of highly sensitive gravitational-wave detectors, our understanding of merging compact binaries and the gravitational waves they generate has improved dramatically in recent years. Breakthroughs in…
Once a gravitational wave signal is detected, the measurement of its source parameters is important to achieve various scientific goals. This is done through Bayesian inference, where the analysis cost increases with the model complexity…
Numerical simulations of star clusters with black holes find that there is only a single dynamically active binary black hole (BBH), at odds with the theoretical expectation of ~5 dynamically formed - or, commonly referred to as three-body…
Tidal disruption has a dramatic impact on the outcome of neutron star-black hole mergers. The phenomenology of these systems can be divided in three classes: nondisruptive, mildly disruptive or disruptive. The cutoff frequency of the…
Black hole (BH) - neutron star (NS) binary mergers are not only strong sources of gravitational waves (GWs), but they are also candidates for joint detections in the GW and electromagnetic (EM) spectra. However, the possible emergence of an…
Using state-of-the-art dynamical simulations of globular clusters, including radiation reaction during black hole encounters and a cosmological model of star cluster formation, we create a realistic population of dynamically-formed binary…