Related papers: Probing Boson Clouds with Supermassive Black Hole …
Supermassive binary black holes (SBBHs) are a natural outcome of galaxy mergers. Here we show that low-frequency ($f \leq 10^{-6}$ Hz) quasi-periodic variability observed from cosmic blazar sources can provide substantial inductive support…
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…
We assess the effects of super-massive black hole (SMBH) environments on the gravitational-wave (GW) signal from binary SMBHs. To date, searches with pulsar timing arrays for GWs from binary SMBHs, in the frequency band $\sim1-100$\,nHz,…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) in galactic nuclei are thought to be a common by-product of major galaxy mergers. We use simple disk models for the circumbinary gas and for the binary-disk interaction to follow the orbital decay…
We study the superradiant instability of a massive boson around a spinning black hole in full general relativity without assuming spatial symmetries. We focus on the case of a rapidly spinning black hole in the presence of a vector boson…
Black hole (BH) shadows can be used to probe new physics in the form of ultra-light particles via the phenomenon of superradiant instability. By directly affecting the BH mass and spin, superradiance can lead to a time evolution of the BH…
Black hole superradiance, which only relies on gravitational interactions, can provide a powerful probe of the existence of ultralight bosons that are weakly coupled to ordinary matter. However, as a boson cloud grows through superradiance,…
Merging compact black-hole (BH) binaries are likely to exist in the nuclear star clusters around supermassive BHs (SMBHs), such as Sgr A$^\ast$. They may also form in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei. Such compact binaries can…
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…
Rapidly rotating black holes are known to develop instabilities in the presence of a sufficiently light boson, a process which becomes efficient when the boson's Compton wavelength is roughly the size of the black hole. This phenomenon,…
Recent observations indicate that many if not all galaxies host massive central black holes (BHs). In this paper we explore the influence of supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) on their actions as gravitational lenses. When lenses are…
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…
Studying how the black hole (BH) - (galaxy) bulge mass relation evolves with redshift provides valuable insights into the co-evolution of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies. However, obtaining accurate measurement of BH masses…
Under some conditions, light boson fields grow exponentially around a rotating black hole, called the superradiance instability. We discuss effects of nonlinear interactions of the boson on the instability. In particular, we focus on the…
The use of modern effective field theory techniques has sparked significant developments in many areas of physics, including the study of gravity. Case in point, such techniques have recently been used to show that binary black holes can…
Black holes in binaries with other compact objects can provide natural venues for indirect detection of axions or other ultralight fields. The superradiant instability associated with a rapidly spinning black hole leads to the creation of…
Through the black hole (BH) superradiance, ultralight bosons can form dense clouds around rotating Kerr BHs. Certain ultralight bosons, such as axions and axion-like particles (promising dark matter candidates), naturally possess…
Motivated by observational searches for sub-parsec supermassive black hole binaries (SBHBs) we develop a modular analytic model to determine the likelihood for detection of SBHBs by ongoing spectroscopic surveys. The model combines the…
Supermassive Binary Black Holes (SMBBHs) with sub-pc separations form in the course of galaxy mergers, if both galaxies harbour massive black holes. Clear observational evidence for them however still eludes us. We propose a novel method of…
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) produced in galaxy mergers are thought to complete their coalescence, below separations of r_GW=10^{-3} (M_BH/10^8 M_sun)^{3/4} pc, as their orbit decays due to the emission of gravitational waves…