Related papers: Intermediate mass ratio inspirals in dark matter h…
If the cosmological dark matter is primarily in the form of an elementary particle which has cross section and mass for self-interaction having a ratio similar to that of ordinary nuclear matter, then seed black holes (formed in stellar…
It has been suggested for a long time that dark matter would form a density spike around a black hole. However, no promising evidence has been observed so far to verify this theoretical suggestion. Here, we report the existence of a dark…
Extreme-mass-ratio inspirals consist of binary systems of compact objects, with orders of magnitude differences in their masses, in the regime where the dynamics are driven by gravitational wave emission. The unique nature of…
In its final year of inspiral, a stellar mass ($1 - 10 M_\odot$) body orbits a massive ($10^5 - 10^7 M_\odot$) compact object about $10^5$ times, spiralling from several Schwarzschild radii to the last stable orbit. These orbits are deep in…
We examine the evolution, under gravitational radiation reaction, of slightly eccentric equatorial orbits of point particles around Kerr black holes. Our method involves numerical integration of the Sasaki-Nakamura equation. It is…
The capture and inspiral of compact stellar masses into massive black holes is an important source of low-frequency gravitational waves (with frequencies of ~1-100mHz), such as those that might be detected by the planned Laser…
Using several approximations, we calculate an estimate of the gravitational radiation emitted when two equal mass black holes coalesce at the end of their binary inspiral. We find that about 1% of the mass energy of the pair will emerge as…
There is a lot of current astrophysical evidence and interest in intermediate mass black holes, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand solar masses. The active galaxy M82 and the globular cluster in M31, for example, are known to…
We study the rate at which stars spiral into a massive black hole (MBH) due to the emission of gravitational waves (GWs), as a function of the mass M of the MBH. In the context of our model, it is shown analytically that the rate…
This poster discusses a possible explanation for the relationship between the mass of the central supermassive black hole and the velocity dispersion in the bulge of the host galaxy. We suppose that the black hole and the dark matter halo…
The gravitational capture of a stellar-mass compact object (CO) by a supermassive black hole is a unique probe of gravity in the strong field regime. Because of the large mass ratio, we call these sources extreme-mass ratio inspirals…
Inspirals of stellar-mass compact objects into massive black holes, known as extreme mass ratio inspirals (EMRIs), are one of the key targets for upcoming space-based gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper we take the first steps…
In this dissertation, we look at environmental effects in extreme and intermediate mass ratio inspirals into massive black holes. In these systems, stellar mass compact objects orbit massive black holes and lose orbital energy due to…
We discuss the method, and potential systematic effects therein, used for measuring the mass of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. We restrict our discussion to the method that relies on the validity of Kepler's laws; we refer to…
The energy and momentum deposited by the radiation from accretion onto the supermassive black holes (BHs) that reside at the centres of virtually all galaxies can halt or even reverse gas inflow, providing a natural mechanism for…
We study extreme mass ratio inspirals occurring in modified gravity, for which the system is modeled by a small compact object with scalar charge spiraling into a supermassive Kerr black hole. Besides the tensorial gravitational waves…
Observations suggest that star clusters often form in binaries or larger bound groups. Therefore, mergers between two clusters are likely to occur. If these clusters both harbor an intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH; 10^{2-4} Msun) in their…
Extreme mass-ratio inspirals (EMRIs), in which a solar mass compact object is whirling around a supermassive black hole, act as precise tracers of the spacetime geometry and astrophysical environment around the supermassive black hole.…
The presence of dark matter overdensities surrounding a black hole can influence the evolution of a binary system. The gravitational wave signals emitted by a black hole binary offer a promising means to probe the dark matter environments…
The inspiral of a stellar-mass compact object into a massive ($\sim 10^{4}$-$10^{7} M_{\odot}$) black hole produces an intricate gravitational-wave signal. Due to the extreme-mass ratios involved, these systems complete $\sim…