Related papers: Black Holes and Pulsar Binaries
The vast majority of massive binary systems in the universe is evidently unsuited to produce merging binary black holes. However, several narrow evolutionary paths of isolated massive binaries towards this goal have recently been…
The conventional view of stellar-mass binary black hole (sBBH) mergers is that there should not be enough matter present to produce a detectable electromagnetic transient. However, there ARE a number of mechanisms for producing such a…
The formation of compact stellar-mass binaries is a difficult, but interesting problem in astrophysics. There are two main formation channels: In the field via binary star evolution, or in dense stellar systems via dynamical interactions.…
Recent studies suggest that globular clusters (GCs) may retain a substantial population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs), in contrast to the long-held belief of a few to zero BHs. We model the population of BH low-mass X-ray binaries…
Black hole (BH) triples represent one of the astrophysical pathways for BH mergers in the Universe detectable by LIGO and VIRGO. We study the formation of BH triples via binary-binary encounters in dense clusters, showing that one-third of…
The dynamical processes involving stellar-remnant black holes (BH) in stellar clusters has always drawn attention due to the BHs' potential in a number of astrophysical phenomena, especially the dynamical formation of binary black holes…
Interest to astrophysical evidence for primordial black holes (PBHs) formed in the early Universe from initial cosmological perturbations has increased after the discovery of coalescing binary black holes with masses more than dozen solar…
Improved observations of globular clusters are uncovering a large number of radio pulsars and of X-ray sources. The latter include binaries in which a neutron star or a white dwarf accretes matter from a companion, recycled pulsars, and…
Black holes with hundreds to thousands of solar masses are more massive than can be formed from a single star in the current universe, yet the best candidates for these objects are not located in gas-rich environments where gradual…
Supermassive black hole (SMBH) binary systems are unavoidable outcomes of galaxy mergers. Their dynamics encode information about their formation and growth, the composition of their host galactic nuclei, the evolution of galaxies, and the…
Massive black holes appear to be present in the nuclei of almost all galaxies, but their genesis and evolution are not well understood. As astrophysical black holes are completely characterized by their masses and spins, the observed joint…
Theory and observations suggest that single-star evolution is not able to produce black holes (BHs) with masses in the range $3-5M_{\odot}$ and above $\sim 45M_{\odot}$, referred to as the lower mass gap (LMG) and the upper mas gap (UMG),…
Pulsar timing is a promising technique for detecting low frequency sources of gravitational waves. Historically the focus has been on the detection of diffuse stochastic backgrounds, such as those formed from the superposition of weak…
Data from the LIGO and Virgo detectors has confirmed that stellar-mass black holes can merge within a Hubble time, leaving behind massive remnant black holes. In some astrophysical environments such as globular clusters and AGN disks, it…
Young star clusters are likely the most common birthplace of massive stars across cosmic time and influence the formation of compact binaries in several ways. Here, we simulate the formation of black hole -- neutron star binaries (BHNSs) in…
The dynamical assembly of binary black holes (BBHs) in dense star clusters (SCs) is one of the most promising pathways for producing observable gravitational wave (GW) sources, however several other formation scenarios likely operate as…
When modeling the population of merging binary black holes, analyses have generally focused on characterizing the distribution of primary (i.e. more massive) black holes in the binary, while simplistic prescriptions are used for the…
Mainly motivated by the recent GW190521 mass gap event which we take as a benchmark point, we critically assess if binaries made of a primordial black hole and a black hole of astrophysical origin may form, merge in stellar clusters and…
We discuss the properties of stellar mass black hole (BH) mergers induced by tidal encounters with a massive BH at galactic centres or potentially in dense star clusters. The tidal disruption of stellar binaries by a massive BH is known to…
The majority of the ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in external galaxies are believed to be accreting black holes in binary systems; some of the black holes could be as massive as $\sim 100-1000 \ms$. We have performed evolution…