Related papers: Black Hole Mergers as the Fastest Photon Ring Scra…
A model for determining the dimensionless spin parameter and mass of the black hole remnant of black hole-neutron star mergers with arbitrary initial black hole spin angular momentum, binary mass ratio, and neutron star mass and cold…
The speed gain of a test mass from taking a gravitational slingshot around a celestial object (scattering centre) increases with the latter's speed and compactness (stronger deflection of the mass' trajectory becomes possible without it…
The formation and growth of supermassive black holes is a key issue to unveil the secrets of galaxy formation. In particular, the gravitational recoil produced in the merger of unequal mass black hole binaries could have a number of…
We performed a series of 1381 full numerical simulations of high energy collision of black holes to search for the maximum recoil velocity after their merger. We consider equal mass binaries with opposite spins pointing along their orbital…
Binary black-hole systems with spins aligned with the orbital angular momentum are of special interest as they may be the preferred end-state of the inspiral of generic supermassive binary black-hole systems. In view of this, we have…
The heaviest black holes discovered through gravitational waves have masses that are difficult to explain with current standard stellar models. This discrepancy may be due to a series of hierarchical mergers, where the observed black holes…
When unequal-mass black holes merge, the final black hole receives a ``kick'' due to the asymmetric loss of linear momentum in the gravitational radiation emitted during the merger. The magnitude of this kick has important astrophysical…
Recent numerical simulations of binary black hole mergers show the possibility of producing very large recoil velocities (> 3000 km/s). Kicks of this magnitude should be sufficient to eject the final black hole from virtually any galactic…
We report the first results from evolutions of a generic black-hole binary, i.e. a binary containing unequal mass black holes with misaligned spins. Our configuration, which has a mass ratio of 2:1, consists of an initially non-spinning…
Classical black holes are solutions of the field equations of General Relativity. Many astronomical observations suggest that black holes really exist in nature. However, an unambiguous proof for their existence is still lacking. Neither…
Accretion onto black holes is one of the most efficient energy source in the Universe. Black hole accretion powers some of the most luminous objects in the universe, including quasars, active galactic nuclei, tidal disruption events,…
We revisit the scenario of the gravitational radiation recoil acquired by the final remnant of a black-hole-binary merger by studying a set of configurations that have components of the spin both aligned with the orbital angular momentum…
We review theoretical findings, astrophysical modeling, and current gravitational-wave evidence of hierarchical stellar-mass black-hole mergers. While most of the compact binary mergers detected by LIGO and Virgo are expected to consist of…
The Kerr rotating black hole metric has unstable photon orbits that orbit around the hole at fixed values of the Boyer-Lindquist coordinate $r$ that depend on the axial angular momentum of the orbit, as well as on the parameters of the…
We argue that the event horizon of a binary black hole merger, in the extreme-mass-ratio limit where one of the black holes is much smaller than the other, can be described in an exact analytic way. This is done by tracing in the…
We consider the dynamical evolution of bound, hierarchical triples of supermassive black holes that might be formed in the nuclei of galaxies undergoing sequential mergers. The tidal force of the outer black hole on the inner binary…
A black hole binary approaching merger undergoes changes in its inspiral rate as energy and angular momentum are lost from the orbits into the horizons. This effect strengthens as the black holes come closer. We use numerical relativity…
We present results of numerical simulations of sequences of binary-single scattering events of black holes in dense stellar environments. The simulations cover a wide range of mass ratios from equal mass objects to 1000:10:10 solar masses…
The motion of a stellar compact object around a supermassive black hole can be approximated by the motion of a spinning test particle. The equations of motion describing such systems are in general non-integrable, and therefore, chaotic…
Supermassive black holes are prevalent at the centers of massive galaxies, and their masses scale with galaxy properties, increasing evidence suggesting that these trends continue to low stellar masses. Seeds are needed for supermassive…