Related papers: Long-Term Evolution of Massive Black Hole Binaries…
We present the result of large-scale N-body simulations of the stellar-dynamical evolution of a massive black-hole binary at the center of a spherical galaxy. We focus on the dependence of the hardening rate on the relaxation timescale of…
We use a hybrid N-body program to study the evolution of massive black hole binaries in the centers of galaxies, mainly to understand the factors affecting the binary eccentricity, the response of the galaxy to the binary merger, and the…
[Abridged] In galactic nuclei with sufficiently short relaxation times, binary supermassive black holes can evolve beyond their stalling radii via continued interaction with stars. We study this "collisional" evolutionary regime using both…
The long-term evolution of massive black hole binaries at the centers of galaxies is studied in a variety of physical regimes, with the aim of resolving the ``final parsec problem,'' i.e., how black hole binaries manage to shrink to…
We investigated the evolution of the black hole binary formed by the merging of two galaxies each containing a central massive black hole. Our main goal here is to determine if the black hole binary can merge through the hardening by…
We consider the evolution of supermassive black hole binaries at the center of spherical, axisymmetric, and triaxial galaxies, using direct N-body integrations as well as analytic estimates. We find that the rates of binary hardening…
The N-independence observed in the evolution of massive black hole binaries (MBHBs) in recent simulation of merging stellar bulges suggests a simple interpretation beyond complex time-dependent relaxation processes. We conjecture that the…
Coalescence of binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) would constitute the strongest sources of gravitational waves to be observed by LISA. While the formation of binary SBHs during galaxy mergers is almost inevitable, coalescence requires…
This paper studies the formation and evolution of binary supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in rotating galactic nuclei, focusing on the role of stellar dynamics. We present the first N-body simulations that follow the evolution of the SMBHs…
Making use of a new N-body model to describe the evolution of a moderate-size globular cluster we investigate the characteristics of the population of black holes within such a cluster. This model reaches core-collapse and achieves a peak…
We compute the isotropic gravitational wave (GW) background produced by binary supermassive black holes (SBHs) in galactic nuclei. In our model, massive binaries evolve at early times via gravitational-slingshot interaction with nearby…
The stellar ejection rate and the rates of change of the binary semimajor axis and eccentricity are derived from scattering experiments for the restricted three-body problem. They are used to study the evolution of binaries in simple models…
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…
I overview the current understanding of the evolution of massive black hole (MBH) binaries in the center of the host stellar system. One of the main questions is whether the stellar dynamical effect can make the MBH binary hard enough that…
Binary supermassive black holes form naturally in galaxy mergers, but their long-term evolution is uncertain. In spherical galaxies, N-body simulations show that binary evolution stalls at separations much too large for significant emission…
We examine whether massive binary black holes in spherically symmetric bulges of galaxies can achieve coalescence through the emission of gravitational radiation under the action of stellar dynamical processes alone. In particular, we…
We study the evolution of a massive black hole pair in a rotationally supported nuclear disc. The distributions of stars and gas mimic the nuclear region of a gas-rich galaxy merger remnant. Using high-resolution SPH simulations, we follow…
We present the first study of the dynamical evolution of an isolated star cluster that combines a significant population of primordial binaries with the presence of a central black hole. We use equal-mass direct N-body simulations, with N…
Binary supermassive black holes (SMBH) are expected to form naturally during galaxy mergers. After the dynamical friction phase, when the two SMBHs become gravitationally bound to each other, and a brief stage of initial rapid hardening,…
We present a new approach to studying the evolution of massive black hole binaries in a stellar environment. By imposing conservation of total energy and angular momentum in scattering experiments, we find the dissipation forces that are…