Related papers: Black-hole mergers in disklike environments could …
The complex astrophysical processes leading to the formation of binary black holes and their eventual merger are imprinted on the spins of the individual black holes. We revisit the astrophysical distribution of those spins based on…
We present an overview of recent numerical advances in the theoretical characterization of massive binary black hole (MBBH) mergers in astrophysical environments. These systems are among the loudest sources of gravitational waves (GWs) in…
LIGO's detection of gravitational waves from binary black hole mergers was an unexpected surprise that immediately raised the question - what is the origin of these black hole binaries? The "simplest" scenario is evolution of field massive…
We study the influence of astrophysical formation scenarios on the precessional dynamics of spinning black-hole binaries by the time they enter the observational window of second- and third-generation gravitational-wave detectors, such as…
Detecting orbital eccentricity in a stellar-mass black-hole merger would point to a non-isolated formation channel. Eccentric binaries can form in dense stellar environments such as globular clusters or active galactic nuclei, or from…
The origins of coalescing binary black holes (BBHs) detected by the advanced LIGO/Virgo are still under debate, and clues may be present in the joint mass-spin distribution of these merger events. Here we construct phenomenological models…
In this short review we describe some of the latest endeavours to understand the activity around Black Holes. First, it has been possible to demonstrate that a large part of the electromagnetic emission observed can be interpreted as…
Dynamical interactions in dense star clusters could significantly influence the properties of black holes, leaving imprints on their gravitational-wave signatures. While previous studies have mostly focused on repeated black hole mergers…
Observations of gravitational waves and their electromagnetic counterparts may soon uncover the existence of coalescing compact binary systems formed by a stellar-mass black hole and a neutron star. These mergers result in a remnant black…
One proposed black hole formation channel involves hierarchical mergers, where black holes form through repeated binary mergers. Previous studies have shown that such black holes follow a near-universal spin distribution centered around…
Understanding the predictions of general relativity for the dynamical interactions of two black holes has been a long-standing unsolved problem in theoretical physics. Black-hole mergers are monumental astrophysical events, releasing…
Environment, such as the accretion disk, could modify the signal of the gravitational wave from the astrophysical black hole binaries. In this article, we model the matter field around the intermediate-mass binary black holes by means of an…
We describe recent numerical simulations of the merger of a class of equal mass, non-spinning, eccentric binary black hole systems in general relativity. We show that with appropriate fine-tuning of the initial conditions to a region of…
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…
The LIGO/Virgo Scientific Collaboration recently announced the detection of a compact object binary merger, GW190412, as the first asymmetric binary black hole (BBH) merger with mass ratio $q\approx0.25$. Other than the mass ratio, this BBH…
Merging compact black-hole (BH) binaries are likely to exist in the nuclear star clusters around supermassive BHs (SMBHs), such as Sgr A$^\ast$. They may also form in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei. Such compact binaries can…
We present the first direct comparison of numerical simulations of neutron star-black hole and black hole-black hole mergers in full general relativity. We focus on a configuration with non spinning objects and within the most likely range…
Gravitational waves from binary black hole pairs have emerged as an important observational tool in current times. The energy of the BH - BH binary pair is radiated in the form of gravitational waves and to compensate for that energy,…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are powered by accretion disks onto supermassive black holes in the the centers of galaxies. AGN are believed to play important roles in the evolution of both supermassive black holes and their host galaxies…
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…