Related papers: Superradiant clouds may be relevant for close comp…
The environment near super massive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei contain a large number of stars and compact objects. A fraction of these are likely to be members of binaries. Here we discuss the binary population of stellar black…
There is compelling evidence that most -if not all- galaxies harbour a super-massive black hole (SMBH) at their nucleus, hence binaries of these massive objects are an inevitable product of the hierarchical evolution of structures in the…
The effect of tidal forces on transport within a relic accretion disk in binary black holes is studied here with a suite of two-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. As the binary contracts due to the emission of gravitational waves, the…
The recent Advanced LIGO detection of gravitational waves from the binary black hole GW150914 suggests there exists a large population of merging binary black holes in the Universe. Although most are too distant to be individually resolved…
We present an investigation into how sensitive the last orbits and merger of binary black hole systems are to the presence of spurious radiation in the initial data. Our numerical experiments consist of a binary black hole system starting…
Gravitational signatures of black hole superradiance are a unique probe of ultralight particles that are weakly-coupled to ordinary matter. The existence of an ultralight boson would lead spinning black holes with size comparable to the…
Ultralight bosons can be abundantly produced through superradiance process by a spinning black hole and form a bound state with hydrogen-like spectrum. We show that such a "gravitational atom" typically possesses anomalously large mass…
We show that a common evolutionary history can produce the black hole binaries in the Galaxy in which the black holes have masses of ~ 5-10 M_sun. In with low-mass, <~ 2.5 M_sun, ZAMS (zero age main sequence) companions, the latter remain…
Mergers of black-hole binaries are expected to release large amounts of energy in the form of gravitational radiation. However, binary evolution models predict merger rates too low to be of observational interest. In this paper we explore…
Mass transfer in binary systems is the key process in the formation of various classes of objects, including merging binary black holes (BBHs) and neutron stars. Orbital evolution during mass transfer depends on how much mass is accreted…
Possible formation mechanisms of massive close binary black holes that can merge in the Hubble time to produce powerful gravitational wave bursts detected during advanced LIGO O1 science run are briefly discussed. The pathways include the…
Generic black hole binaries radiate gravitational waves anisotropically, imparting a recoil, or kick, velocity to the merger remnant. If a component of the kick along the line of sight is present, gravitational waves emitted during the…
Dense environments hosting compact binary mergers can leave an imprint on the gravitational-wave emission which, in turn, can be used to identify the characteristics of the environment. To demonstrate such scenario, we consider a simple…
Binary systems are a common site of planet formation, despite the destructive effects of the binary on the disk. While surveys of planet forming material have found diminished disk masses around medium separation ($\sim$10--100 au)…
As binary systems move inside galaxies, they interact with the dark matter halo. This interaction leads to the accretion of dark matter particles inside binary components. The accretion of dark matter particles increases the mass of the…
In massive binary-star systems, supernova explosions can significantly alter the orbit during the formation of compact objects. Some compact objects are predicted to form via direct collapse, a scenario with negligible mass loss and no…
Nuclear star clusters that surround supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei are among the densest systems in the Universe, harbouring millions of stars and compact objects (COs). Within a few parsecs from the SMBH, stars can…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHs) are a fascinating byproduct of galaxy mergers in the hierarchical universe. In the last stage of their orbital evolution, gravitational wave radiation drives the binary inspiral and produces the…
Understanding the fate of merging supermassive black holes in galactic mergers, and the gravitational wave emission from this process, are important LISA science goals. To this end, we present results from numerical relativity simulations…
In this work we evaluate whether the gravitational wave background recently observed by a number of different pulsar timing arrays could be due to merging primordial supermassive black hole binaries. We find that for homogeneously…