Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userDynamical formation signatures of black hole binaries in the first detected mergers by LIGO
68
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
The dynamical formation of stellar-mass black hole-black hole binaries has long been a promising source of gravitational waves for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Mass segregation, gravitational focusing, and multibody dynamical interactions naturally increase the interaction rate between the most massive black holes in dense stellar systems, eventually leading them to merge. We find that dynamical interactions, particularly three-body binary formation, enhance the merger rate of black hole binaries with total mass M_tot roughly as ~M_tot^beta, with beta >~ 4. We find that this relation holds mostly independently of the initial mass function, but the exact value depends on the degree of mass segregation. The detection rate of such massive black hole binaries is only further enhanced by LIGOs greater sensitivity to massive black hole binaries with M_tot <~ 80 solar masses. We find that for power-law BH mass functions dN/dM ~ M^-alpha with alpha <~ 2, LIGO is most likely to detect black hole binaries with a mass twice that of the maximum initial black hole mass and a mass ratio near one. Repeated mergers of black holes inside the cluster result in about ~5% of mergers being observed between two and three times the maximum initial black hole mass. Using these relations, one may be able to invert the observed distribution to the initial mass function with multiple detections of merging black hole binaries.
rate research
Read More
We review the main physical processes that lead to the formation of stellar binary black holes (BBHs) and to their merger. BBHs can form from the isolated evolution of massive binary stars. The physics of core-collapse supernovae and the process of common envelope are two of the main sources of uncertainty about this formation channel. Alternatively, two black holes can form a binary by dynamical encounters in a dense star cluster. The dynamical formation channel leaves several imprints on the mass, spin and orbital properties of BBHs.
We compare the event rate density detected by LIGO to the comoving number density of isolated stellar progenitors and find a range for their formation redshift. Our limit depends on the threshold mass for making the black holes (BHs) but only weakly on the metallicity of their progenitor. If $10 %$ of all BHs are in coalescing binaries, then enough progenitors have formed by $ 2< z_f < 9 $.
Galaxy mergers produce supermassive black hole binaries, which emit gravitational waves prior to their coalescence. We perform three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations to study the tidal disruption of stars by such a binary in the final centuries of its life. We find that the gas stream of the stellar debris moves chaotically in the binary potential and forms accretion disks around both black holes. The accretion light curve is modulated over the binary orbital period owing to relativistic beaming. This periodic signal allows to detect the decay of the binary orbit due to gravitational wave emission by observing two tidal disruption events that are separated by more than a decade.
In the next few years Advanced LIGO (aLIGO) may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers. This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics. Here we show how to search for new physics beyond the standard model using this tool, in particular the QCD axion in the mass range ma ~ 10^-14 to 10^-10 eV. Axions (or any bosons) in this mass range cause rapidly rotating BHs to shed their spin into a large cloud of axions in atomic Bohr orbits around the BH, through the effect of superradiance (SR). This results in a gap in the mass vs. spin distribution of BHs when the BH size is comparable to the axions Compton wavelength. By measuring the spin and mass of the merging objects observed at LIGO, we could verify the presence and shape of the gap in the BH distribution produced by the axion. The axion cloud can also be discovered through the GWs it radiates via axion annihilations or level transitions. A blind monochromatic GW search may reveal up to 10^5 BHs radiating through axion annihilations, at distinct frequencies within ~3% of $2 ma. Axion transitions probe heavier axions and may be observable in future GW observatories. The merger events are perfect candidates for a targeted GW search. If the final BH has high spin, a SR cloud may grow and emit monochromatic GWs from axion annihilations. We may observe the SR evolution in real time.
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are products of galaxy mergers, and are important in testing Lambda cold dark matter cosmology and locating gravitational-wave-radiation sources. A unique electromagnetic signature of SMBHBs in galactic nuclei is essential in identifying the binaries in observations from the IR band through optical to X-ray. Recently, the flares in optical, UV, and X-ray caused by supermassive black holes (SMBHs) tidally disrupting nearby stars have been successfully used to observationally probe single SMBHs in normal galaxies. In this Letter, we investigate the accretion of the gaseous debris of a tidally disrupted star by a SMBHB. Using both stability analysis of three-body systems and numerical scattering experiments, we show that the accretion of stellar debris gas, which initially decays with time $propto t^{-5/3}$, would stop at a time $T_{rm tr} simeq eta T_{rm b}$. Here, $eta sim0.25$ and $T_{rm b}$ is the orbital period of the SMBHB. After a period of interruption, the accretion recurs discretely at time $T_{rm r} simeq xi T_b$, where $xi sim 1$. Both $eta$ and $xi$ sensitively depend on the orbital parameters of the tidally disrupted star at the tidal radius and the orbit eccentricity of SMBHB. The interrupted accretion of the stellar debris gas gives rise to an interrupted tidal flare, which could be used to identify SMBHBs in non-active galaxies in the upcoming transient surveys.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
