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We review the state of the evidence for the existence and observational appearance of supermassive black hole binaries. Such objects are expected from standard hierarchical galaxy evolution to form after two galaxies, each containing a…

Coalescing massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) are one of primary sources for space-based gravitational wave (GW) observations. The mergers of these binaries are expected to give rise to detectable electromagnetic (EM) emissions with a…

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics · Physics 2024-06-26 Wen-Hong Ruan , Zong-Kuan Guo

The gravitational-wave background from supermassive binary black holes (SMBBHs) has yet to be detected. This has led to speculations as to whether current pulsar timing array limits are in tension with theoretical predictions. In this…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-01-07 Xing-Jiang Zhu , Weiguang Cui , Eric Thrane

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) with masses in the range 10^4-10^7 M_sun/(1+z), produced in galaxy mergers, are thought to complete their coalescence due to the emission of gravitational waves (GWs). The anticipated detection of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 Zoltán Haiman , Bence Kocsis , Kristen Menou , Zoltán Lippai , Zsolt Frei

We investigate the presence of supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary signatures and the feasibility of identifying them through X-ray reflection spectra. The X-ray emitting region is modeled as a set of two mini-disks bound to the…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2025-07-04 Julie Malewicz , David R. Ballantyne , Tamara Bogdanović , Laura Brenneman , Thomas Dauser

We assess models for the assembly of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at the center of galaxies that trace their hierarchical build-up far up in the dark halo `merger tree'. We assume that the first `seed' black holes (BHs) formed in…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 Marta Volonteri , Francesco Haardt , Piero Madau

NANOGrav and other Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTAs) have discovered a common-spectrum process in the nHz range that may be due to gravitational waves (GWs): if so, they are likely to have been generated by black hole (BH) binaries with total…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2023-08-02 John Ellis , Malcolm Fairbairn , Gert Hütsi , Martti Raidal , Juan Urrutia , Ville Vaskonen , Hardi Veermäe

Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are a ubiquitous component of the nuclei of galaxies. It is normally assumed that, following the merger of two massive galaxies, a SMBH binary will form, shrink due to stellar or gas dynamical processes and…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-07-14 Lucio Mayer , Stelios Kazantzidis , Piero Madau , Monica Colpi , Thomas Quinn , James Wadsley

In this paper we continue the first ever study of magnetized mini-disks coupled to circumbinary accretion in a supermassive binary black hole (SMBBH) approaching merger reported in Bowen et al. 2018. We extend this simulation from 3 to 12…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2019-07-17 Dennis B. Bowen , Vassilios Mewes , Scott C. Noble , Mark Avara , Manuela Campanelli , Julian H. Krolik

Abridged: Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) separated by (sub)-pc scales represent one of the latest stages of hierarchical galaxy assembly. However, many of these objects are hidden behind large columns of gas and dust at the…

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are among the most powerful known sources of gravitational waves (GWs). Accordingly, these systems could dominate GW emission in the micro- and millihertz frequency range. Within this domain, SMBHs…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2026-01-08 Matthias Daniel , Kris Pardo , Laura Sagunski

The space-borne gravitational-wave (GW) detectors will open a new mass and redshift regime, allowing us to observe massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) throughout the Universe. A subset of these systems is expected to produce electromagnetic…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2026-04-28 Xue-Ting Zhang , Jonathan Gair , Chris Messenger , Natalia Korsakova , Yi-Ming Hu , Hong-Yu Chen

We simulate an equal-mass merger of two Milky Way-size galaxy discs with moderate gas fractions at parsec-scale resolution including a new model for radiative cooling and heating in a multi-phase medium, as well as star formation and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2015-06-22 R. Roškar , L. Mayer , D. Fiacconi , S. Kazantzidis , T. R. Quinn , J. Wadsley

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) may exist in the centers of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN) and are expected to be fairly common in the Universe as a consequence of merging processes between galaxies. The existence of…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 F. De Paolis , G. Ingrosso , A. A. Nucita

Milli-second pulsars with highly stable periods can be considered as very precise clocks and can be used for pulsar timing array (PTA) which attempts to detect nanoheltz gravitational waves (GWs) directly. Main sources of nanoheltz GWs are…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-12-22 Tomonosuke Kikunaga , Shinnosuke Hisano , Hiroki Kumamoto , Keitaro Takahashi

In 2023, the Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) Collaborations announced the discovery of a gravitational wave background (GWB), predominantly attributed to supermassive black hole binary (SMBHB) mergers. However, the detected GWB is several times…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-08-29 Zhao-Feng Wu , Dimitrios Giannios

Supermassive black holes presumably grow through numerous mergers throughout cosmic time. During each merger, supermassive black hole binaries are surrounded by a circumbinary accretion disk that imposes a significant (~1e4 G for a binary…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2015-05-28 David L. Kaplan , Richard O'Shaughnessy , Alberto Sesana , Marta Volonteri

We present the results of the first multi-scale N-Body+SPH simulations of merging galaxies containing central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and having a spatial resolution of only a few parsecs. Strong gas inflows associated with…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-24 Lucio Mayer , Stelios Kazantzidis , Piero Madau , Monica Colpi , Thomas Quinn , James Wadsley

The population of stellar origin black hole binaries (SOBHBs) detected by existing ground-based gravitational wave detectors is an exciting target for the future space-based Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). LISA is sensitive to…

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology · Physics 2023-08-09 Matthew C. Digman , Neil J. Cornish

Elusive supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are thought to be the penultimate stage of galaxy mergers, preceding a final coalescence phase. SMBHBs are sources of continuous gravitational waves, possibly detectable by pulsar timing…