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Related papers: Accretion onto supermassive black hole binaries

200 papers

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2016-02-09 F. G. Goicovic , J. Cuadra , A. Sesana , F. Stasyszyn , P. Amaro-Seoane , T. L. Tanaka

We present general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of merging equal-mass, spinning black holes embedded in an equatorial thin slab of magnetized gas. We evolve black holes either non-spinning, with spins aligned to the orbital…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-05-31 Giacomo Fedrigo , Federico Cattorini , Bruno Giacomazzo , Monica Colpi

In this work, we use general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations to explore the effect of spin orientation on the dynamics of gas in the vicinity of merging black holes. We present a suite of eight simulations of unequal-mass,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2023-09-13 Federico Cattorini , Bruno Giacomazzo , Monica Colpi , Francesco Haardt

We develop a model for supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) accreting below their Eddington limit, focusing on systems where hot, advection-dominated flows become viable. We specifically explore the spectral appearance of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-12-10 Christopher Tiede , Daniel J. D'Orazio

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,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2011-08-08 Brian D. Farris , Yuk Tung Liu , Stuart L. Shapiro

We are on the cusp of detecting gravitational waves (GWs) from individual massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna and pulsar-timing arrays. These MBHBs may be surrounded by circumbinary disks and…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-05-07 Chi-Ho Chan , Vishal Tiwari , Tamara Bogdanović , Yan-Fei Jiang , Shane W. Davis

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…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2018-02-27 Abid Khan , Vasileios Paschalidis , Milton Ruiz , Stuart L. Shapiro

We propose a machine learning-based approach for parameter estimation of Massive Black Hole Binaries (MBHBs), leveraging normalizing flows to approximate the likelihood function. By training these flows on simulated data, we can generate…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2025-09-18 Iván Martín Vílchez , Carlos F. Sopuerta

Accretion onto supermassive black holes produces both the dramatic phenomena associated with active galactic nuclei and the underwhelming displays seen in the Galactic Center and most other nearby galaxies. I review selected aspects of the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-01-27 Philip J. Armitage

We present a semi-analytical binary black hole (BBH) metric approximation that models the entire evolution of the system from inspiral to merger. The metric is constructed as a boosted Kerr-Schild superposition following post-Newtonian (PN)…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-01-21 Luciano Combi , Sean M. Ressler

Accretion of magnetized gas on compact astrophysical objects such as black holes has been successfully modeled using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations. These simulations have largely been performed in the Kerr…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2024-03-07 Prashant Kocherlakota , Ramesh Narayan , Koushik Chatterjee , Alejandro Cruz-Osorio , Yosuke Mizuno

Gaseous circumbinary accretion discs provide a promising mechanism to facilitate the mergers of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei. We measure the torques exerted on accreting SMBH binaries, using 2D, isothermal,…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2017-05-29 Yike Tang , Andrew MacFadyen , Zoltan Haiman

Accretion is the dominant contribution to the cosmic massive black hole density in the Universe today. Yet, modelling it in cosmological simulations is challenging due to the dynamic range involved, as well as the theoretical uncertainties…

We present a global three-dimensional radiation magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulation of a circumbinary disk (CBD) around a massive black hole binary (MBHB) with a total mass $2 \times 10^7\,M_{\odot}$ and mass ratio $0.1$, separated by…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-10-17 Vishal Tiwari , Chi-Ho Chan , Tamara Bogdanović , Yan-Fei Jiang , Shane W. Davis

Simulating accretion and feedback from the horizon scale of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) out to galactic scales is challenging because of the vast range of scales involved. Elaborating on H. Cho et al., we describe and test a…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-07-23 Hyerin Cho , Ben S. Prather , Kung-Yi Su , Ramesh Narayan , Priyamvada Natarajan

There is overwhelming evidence for the presence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the centers of most nearby galaxies. The mass estimates for these remnant black holes from the stellar kinematics of local galaxies and the quasar…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-01-27 Priyamvada Natarajan

A remarkable series of breakthroughs in numerical relativity modeling of black hole binary mergers has occurred over the past few years. This paper provides a general overview of these exciting developments, focusing on recent progress in…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Joan M. Centrella

We investigate the impact of radiation pressure on the circumbinary discs surrounding accreting massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) at milli-parsec separations, using 3D hyper-Lagrangian resolution hydrodynamic simulations. The circumbinary…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-03-18 Fabiola Cocchiararo , Alessia Franchini , Alessandro Lupi , Alberto Sesana

This chapter tells the still-unfolding story of extracting polarization signatures from general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of accretion disks. In some sense, this effort is premature as there are still very few results of…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-05-15 P. Chris Fragile , Maciek Wielgus , Cora Prather

Understanding the dynamics of low angular momentum accretion flow around black holes (BHs) is essential for probing extreme plasma behavior in strong gravity, where shock formation can naturally produce variability signatures. In this…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-08-27 Jirong Mao , Indu K. Dihingia , Yosuke Mizuno , Shigehiro Nagataki