Related papers: Relativistic Binary Precession: Impact on Eccentri…
Understanding the interaction of massive black hole binaries with their gaseous environment is crucial since at sub-parsec scales the binary is too wide for gravitational wave emission to take over and to drive the two black holes to merge.…
Detections of gravitational waves emitted from binary black hole coalescences allow us to probe the strong-field dynamics of general relativity (GR). One can compare the observed gravitational-wave signals with theoretical waveform models…
We present a theoretical study of the gravitational wave (GW) driven inspirals of accreting black hole binaries with mass $M = 10^7 M_\odot$ and mass ratios between $10^{-3}$ and $10^{-1}$. Our results are based on analytic estimates, and…
We study an accretion flow during the gravitational-wave driven evolution of binary massive black holes. After the binary orbit decays due to an interaction with a massive circumbinary disk, the binary is decoupled from the circumbinary…
Recent astrophysical models predict that stellar-mass binary black holes (BBHs) could form and coalesce within a few gravitational radii of a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Detecting the gravitational waves (GWs) from such systems requires…
An eccentric nuclear disk consists of stars moving on apsidally-aligned orbits around a central black hole. The secular gravitational torques that dynamically stabilize these disks can also produce tidal disruption events (TDEs) at very…
Binary star systems can accrete material originating from a circumbinary disc. Since it is common for the circumbinary disc to be tilted with respect to the binary orbital plane, we test whether the accretion dynamics can be a diagnostic…
Simultaneous gravitational and electromagnetic wave observations of merging black hole binaries (BHBHs) can provide unique opportunities to study gravitation physics, accretion and cosmology. Here we perform fully general relativistic,…
Supermassive black-hole binaries are driven to merger by dynamical friction, loss-cone scattering of individual stars, disk migration, and gravitational-wave emission. Two main formation scenarios are expected. Binaries that form in…
We present the results of 2D hydrodynamical simulations of circumbinary disk accretion using the finite-volume code DISCO. This code solves the 2D viscous Navier-Stokes equations on a high-resolution moving mesh which shears with the fluid…
Binary black holes which are both eccentric and undergo precession remain unexplored in numerical simulations. We present simulations of such systems which cover about 50 orbits at comparatively high mass ratios 5 and 7. The configurations…
We present the first three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a circumbinary disk surrounding an equal mass binary. The binary maintains a fixed circular orbit of separation $a$. As in previous hydrodynamical simulations,…
We present three-dimensional Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations investigating the dependence of the accretion rate on the disc thickness around an equal-mass, circular black hole binary system. We find that for thick/hot…
Supermassive black hole binaries may form as a consequence of galaxy mergers. Both prograde and retrograde orbits have been proposed. We study a binary of a small mass ratio, q, in a retrograde orbit immersed in and interacting with a…
In this paper we evolve magnetized and unmagnetized circumbinary accretion disks around supermassive black hole binaries in the relativistic regime. We use a post-Newtonian expansion to construct an analytical spacetime and determine how…
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…
Many galaxies are expected to harbor binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in their centers. Their interaction with the surrounding gas results in accretion and exchange of angular momentum via tidal torques, facilitating binary inspiral.…
Eccentricity and spin precession are key observables in gravitational-wave astronomy, encoding precious information about the astrophysical formation of compact binaries together with fine details of the relativistic two-body problem.…
We study a novel electromagnetic signature of supermassive black hole binaries whose inspiral starts being dominated by gravitational wave (GW) emission. Recent simulations suggest that the binary's member BHs can continue to accrete gas…
A typical stellar mass black hole with a lighter companion is shown to succumb to a chaotic precession of the orbital plane. As a result, the optimal candidates for the direct detection of gravitational waves by Earth based interferometers…