2005/09/30 by Kayhan Gultekin, M. Coleman Miller, Douglas P. Hamilton · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Binary black hole #Black hole (networking) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Gravitation #Gravitational binding energy #Gravitational collapse #Gravitational energy #Gravitational redshift #Gravitational wave #Gravitational-wave observatory #Numerical relativity #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/499917
published as Astrophys.J.640:156-166,2006 · 34 pages, 14 figures, minor corrections to match version accepted by ApJ
arxiv created 2005/11/21 · openalex publication_date 2006/03/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present numerical three-body experiments that include the effects of gravitational radiation reaction by using equations of motion that include the 2.5-order post-Newtonian force terms, which are the leading-order terms of energy loss from gravitational waves. We simulate binary-single interactions and show that close-approach cross sections for three 1 M ☉ objects are unchanged from the purely Newtonian dynamics except for close approaches smaller than 10 -5 times the initial semimajor axis of the binary. We also present cross sections for mergers resulting from gravitational radiation during three-body encounters for a range of binary semimajor axes and mass ratios including those of interest for intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs). Building on previous work, we simulate sequences of high-mass-ratio three-body encounters that include the effects of gravitational radiation. The simulations show that the binaries merge with extremely high eccentricity such that when the gravitational waves are detectable by LISA , most of the binaries will have eccentricities e > 0.9, although all will have circularized by the time they are detectable by LIGO. We also investigate the implications for the formation and growth of IMBHs and find that the inclusion of gravitational waves during the encounter results in roughly half as many black holes ejected from the host cluster for each black hole accreted onto the growing IMBH.