Related papers: Dephasing in binary black hole mergers surrounded …
We investigate the effects of black hole mergers in star clusters on the black hole mass function. As black holes are not produced in pair-instability supernovae, it is suggested that there is a dearth of high mass stellar black holes. This…
This a particularly exciting time for gravitational wave physics. Ground-based gravitational wave detectors are now operating at a sensitivity such that gravitational radiation may soon be directly detected, and recently several groups have…
We examine the pairing process of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) down to scales of 20-100 pc using a set of N-body/SPH simulations of binary mergers of disk galaxies with mass ratios of 1:4 and 1:10. Our numerical experiments are designed…
Are the stellar-mass merging binary black holes, recently detected by their gravitational wave signal, of stellar or primordial origin? Answering this question will have profound implications for our understanding of the Universe, including…
Astrophysical environments are ubiquitous in the Universe; from accretion disks around black holes to galactic dark matter halos, distributions of astrophysical material veil the vast majority of Cosmos. Including environmental effects in…
Over the past 15 years, the evidence has clearly demonstrated that massive black hole (MBH) binary merger timescales depend strongly on the structural and kinematic properties of their host galaxy. Stellar density, gas content, shape and…
We present preliminary results from self-consistent, high resolution direct {\it N}-body simulations of massive black hole binaries in mergers of galactic nuclei. The dynamics of the black hole binary includes the full Post-Newtonian…
The merger of binary pulsars in dark matter (DM)-rich environments can result in DM particle accretion, leading to an increase in the individual pulsar masses. In this work, we investigate the effects of DM accretion on the change in…
The hierarchical scenario of structure formation describes how objects like galaxies and galaxy clusters are formed by mergers of small objects. In this scenario, mergers of galaxies can lead to the formation of massive black hole (MBH)…
A dark matter overdensity around a black hole may significantly alter the dynamics of the black hole's merger with another compact object. We consider here intermediate mass-ratio inspirals of stellar-mass compact objects with…
We present the first direct comparison of numerical simulations of neutron star-black hole and black hole-black hole mergers in full general relativity. We focus on a configuration with non spinning objects and within the most likely range…
The maximum mass of black holes formed in isolated binaries is determined by stellar winds and the interactions between the binary components. We consider for the first time fully self-consistent detailed stellar structure and binary…
Based on the consideration of potential energy of the di-black-hole as a function of mass asymmetry (transfer) collective coordinate, the possibility of matter transfer between the black holes in a binary system is investigated. The…
Massive black hole (MBH) binaries, formed as a result of galaxy mergers, are expected to harden by dynamical friction and three-body stellar scatterings, until emission of gravitational waves (GWs) leads to their final coalescence.…
We present the first search for gravitational waves from the coalescence of stellar mass and sub-solar mass black holes with masses between $20 - 100~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$ and $0.01 - 1~\mathrm{M}_{\odot}~($10 - 10^3$~\mathrm{M}_{J})$,…
We investigate properties of black hole (BH) binaries formed in globular clusters via dynamical processes, using direct N-body simulations. We pay attention to effects of BH mass function on the total mass and mass ratio distributions of BH…
Massive binary black holes form at the centre of galaxies that experience a merger episode. They are expected to coalesce into a larger black hole, following the emission of gravitational waves. Coalescing massive binary black holes are…
The association of an electromagnetic signal with the merger of a pair of supermassive black holes would have many important implications. For example, it would provide new information about gas and magnetic field interactions in dynamical…
In vacuum, the gravitational recoil of the final black hole from the merger of two black holes depends exclusively on the mass ratio and spins of the coalescing black holes, and on the eccentricity of the binary. If matter is present,…
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…