Related papers: Dancing with invisible partners: Three-body exchan…
The masses of compact objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes are fundamental to astrophysics, but very difficult to measure. We present the results of an analysis of subluminous B (sdB) stars in close binary systems with…
The dynamics of black hole seeds in high redshift galaxies is key to understand their ability to grow via accretion and to pair in close binaries during galactic mergers. To properly follow the dynamics of black holes we develop a…
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…
Scalar fields coupled to the Gauss-Bonnet invariant can undergo a tachyonic instability, leading to spontaneous scalarization of black holes. Studies of this effect have so far been restricted to single black hole spacetimes. We present the…
We discuss the gravitational wave emission and the orbital evolution of a hierarchical triple system composed of an inner binary black hole (BBH) and an outer tertiary. Depending on the kick velocity at the merger, the merged BBH could…
We investigate the role of the Keplerian tidal field generated by a supermassive black hole (SMBH) on the three-body dynamics of stellar mass black holes. We consider two scenarios occurring close to the SMBH: the breakup of unstable…
Strong dynamical interactions among stars and compact objects are expected in a variety of astrophysical settings, such as star clusters and the disks of active galactic nuclei. Via a suite of 3D hydrodynamics simulations using the…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHs) are expected to result from galaxy mergers, and thus are natural byproducts (and probes) of hierarchical structure formation in the Universe. They are also the primary expected source of…
The orbital evolution of a binary system consisting of two primordial black hole clusters is investigated. Such clusters are predicted in some theoretical models with broken symmetry in the inflation Lagrangian. A cluster consists of the…
In this note we point out that primordial black holes could be much shorter lived than usually assumed if there is a large hidden sector of particles that only interacts gravitationally with the particles of the standard model. The…
[Abridged] Binary black holes may form and merge dynamically. These binaries are likely to become bound with high eccentricities, resulting in a burst of gravitational radiation at their point of closest approach. When such a binary is…
Most galaxies have central massive black holes (BH), and merge with others during their evolution, as strongly suggested by recent observations. Consequently a black hole binary (BHB) emerges. Considering the evolution of the binary when it…
The existence of supermassive black holes lurking in the centers of galaxies and of stellar binary systems containing a black hole with a few solar masses has been established beyond reasonable doubt. The idea that black holes of…
We consider the implications of the presence of ~1 stellar-mass black hole (BH) at the center of a dense globular cluster. We show that BH X-ray binaries formed through exchange interactions are likely to have extremely low duty cycles…
The detection of a subsolar object in a compact binary merger is regarded as one of the smoking gun signatures of a population of primordial black holes~(PBHs). We critically assess whether these systems could be distinguished from stellar…
Gamma-ray bursts are characterized by a duration of milliseconds to several minutes in which an enormous amount of radiation is emitted. The origin of these phenomena is still unknown because proposed models fail to explain all the observed…
By performing Monte Carlo simulations of the evolution of binary primordial black hole (PBH) systems, we estimate the effect of distant encounters with single PBHs upon the coalescence time and merger rate of binary PBHs. We find that, for…
We present techniques for long-term, stable, and accurate evolutions of multiple-black-hole spacetimes using the `moving puncture' approach with fourth- and eighth-order finite difference stencils. We use these techniques to explore…
Making use of a new N-body model to describe the evolution of a moderate-size globular cluster we investigate the characteristics of the population of black holes within such a cluster. This model reaches core-collapse and achieves a peak…
The growing number of black hole binary (BHB) mergers detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) have the potential to enable an unprecedented characterization of the physical processes and astrophysical…