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We study supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary eccentricity of equal-mass galaxy mergers in $N$-body simulations with the KETJU code, which combines the GAGDET-4 fast multipole gravity solver with accurate regularised integration and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-09-22 Alexander Rawlings , Matias Mannerkoski , Peter H. Johansson , Thorsten Naab

We investigate hierarchical mergers among subhalos within a $\Lambda$CDM simulation using the HBT+ subhalo finder. Unlike previous methods, HBT+ tracks subhalo evolution across hierarchy levels, identifying the coalescence of subhalo cores…

A positive observational proof suggests that most galaxies contain a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) with mass in the range of $10^6M_\odot$ $-$ $10^{10}M_\odot$. It is suggested that the mass of SMBHs is proportionally related to…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2023-05-31 Aryan Bansal , Kiyotomo Ichiki , Hiroyuki Tashiro , Yoshiki Matsuoka

We study the formation of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary and the shrinking of the separation of the two holes to sub-pc scales starting from a realistic major merger between two gas-rich spiral galaxies with mass comparable to our…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-30 Damien Chapon , Lucio Mayer , Romain Teyssier

We compute the expected low-frequency gravitational wave signal from coalescing massive black hole (MBH) binaries at the center of galaxies. We follow the merging history of halos and associated holes via cosmological Monte Carlo…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 A. Sesana , F. Haardt , P. Madau , M. Volonteri

Using SPH numerical simulations, we investigate the effects of gas on the inspiral and merger of a massive black hole binary. This study is motivated by the very massive nuclear gas disks observed in the central regions of merging galaxies.…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Andres Escala , Richard B. Larson , Paolo S. Coppi , Diego Mardones

Very compact ($R_\mathrm{e}\lesssim1$ kpc) massive quiescent galaxies (red nuggets) are more abundant in the high-redshift Universe ($z\sim2$-$3$) than today. Their size evolution can be explained by collisionless dynamical processes in…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-11-19 Antti Rantala , Alexander Rawlings , Thorsten Naab , Jens Thomas , Peter H. Johansson

After a merger of two massive black holes (MBHs), the remnant receives a gravitational wave (GW) recoil kick that can have a strong effect on its future evolution. The magnitude of the kick ($v_\mathrm{recoil}$) depends on the mass ratio…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-03-26 Chi An Dong-Páez , Marta Volonteri , Yohan Dubois , Ricarda S. Beckmann , Maxime Trebitsch

The coalescence of the most massive black hole (MBH) binaries releases gravitational waves (GWs) within the detectable frequency range of Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) $(10^{-9} - 10^{-6})$ Hz. The incoherent superposition of GWs from MBH…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-02-19 Kate Attard , Alessia Gualandris , Justin I. Read , Walter Dehnen

We investigate a purely stellar dynamical solution to the Final Parsec Problem. Galactic nuclei resulting from major mergers are not spherical, but show some degree of triaxiality. With $N$-body simulations, we show that massive black hole…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-05-27 Miguel Preto , Ingo Berentzen , Peter Berczik , Rainer Spurzem

We study the dynamical evolution of the stellar mass binary black holes (BBHs) in a galactic nucleus that contains a massive black hole (MBH). For a comprehensive study of their merging events, we consider simultaneously the non-resonant…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-08-17 Fupeng Zhang , Lijing Shao , Weishan Zhu

We study the growth of dark matter halos in the concordance LCDM cosmology using several N-body simulations of large cosmological volumes. We build merger trees from the Millennium and Millennium-II simulations, covering a range 10^9-10^15…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2010-07-21 Shy Genel , Nicolas Bouché , Thorsten Naab , Amiel Sternberg , Reinhard Genzel

We revisit the phases of the pairing and sinking of BHs in galaxy mergers and circunmunclear disks in light of the results of recent simulations with massive BHs embedded in predominantly gaseous backgrounds. After a general overview we…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-16 Lucio Mayer

We model for the first time the complete orbital evolution of a pair of Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) in a 1:10 galaxy merger of two disk dominated gas-rich galaxies, from the stage prior to the formation of the binary up to the onset of…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-04 Fazeel Mahmood Khan , Ingo Berentzen , Peter Berczik , Andreas Just , Lucio Mayer , Keigo Nitadori , Simone Callegari

The co-evolution of massive black holes (BHs) and their host galaxies is well-established within the hierarchical galaxy formation paradigm. Large-scale cosmological simulations are an ideal tool to study the repeated BH mergers, accretion…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-09-03 Stephanie Buttigieg , Debora Sijacki , Christopher J. Moore , Martin A. Bourne

We investigate the evolution of intermediate-mass (IMBHs), stellar (BHs) and binary black holes (BHBs), deposited near a supermassive black hole (SMBH) by a population of massive star clusters. Stellar BHs rapidly segregate around the SMBH,…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2018-11-28 Manuel Arca-Sedda , Roberto Capuzzo-Dolcetta

We report on key studies on the dynamics of black holes (BHs) in gas-rich galaxy mergers that underscore the vital role played by gas dissipation in promoting BH inspiral down to the smallest scales ever probed with use of high-resolution…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2014-11-18 M. Colpi , S. Callegari , M. Dotti , L. Mayer

The connection between the binary black hole (BBH) mergers observed by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) and their stellar progenitors remains uncertain. Specifically, the fraction $\epsilon$ of stellar mass that ends up in BBH mergers and the delay…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-03-27 Aryanna Schiebelbein-Zwack , Maya Fishbach

Massive black holes (MBHs), with masses in the range 10^3-10^8 Msolar, which merge with a companion black hole of similar mass are expected to be the most powerful source of gravitational radiation in the frequency range probed by LISA. MBH…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Marta Volonteri

The advent of new and near-future observatories probing the earliest epochs of the Universe has opened the opportunity to investigate the formation and growth of the first massive black holes (MBHs). Additionally, the use of high resolution…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2025-01-30 Joe McCaffrey , John Regan , Britton Smith , John Wise , Brian O'Shea , Michael Norman