2007/01/31 by Frank Herrmann, Ian Hinder, Deirdre Shoemaker +2 · 202 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Angular momentum #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary black hole #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Gravitational wave #Nuclear physics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Recoil #Spin-flip #Stellar black hole #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph #gr-qc
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/513603
published in The Astrophysical Journal 661(1), 430-436 (IOP Publishing) · 8 pages, 8 figures, replaced with version accepted for publication in ApJ
arxiv created 2007/02/02 · openalex publication_date 2007/05/11 · arxiv updated 2010/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/08
The inspiraling and merger of binary black holes will likely involve black holes with not only unequal masses but also arbitrary spins. The gravitational radiation emitted by these binaries will carry angular as well as linear momentum. A net flux of emitted linear momentum implies that the black hole produced by the merger will experience a recoil or kick. Previous studies have focused on the recoil velocity from unequal-mass, nonspinning binaries. We present results from simulations of equal-mass but spinning black hole binaries and show how a significant gravitational recoil can also be obtained in these situations. We consider the case of black holes with opposite spins of magnitude a aligned and antialigned with the orbital angular momentum, with a the dimensionless spin parameter of the individual holes. For the initial setups under consideration, we find a recoil velocity of V = 475 a km s -1 . Supermassive black hole mergers producing kicks of this magnitude could result in the ejection of the final hole produced by the collision from the core of a dwarf galaxy.