Tidal interaction of a small black hole in the field of a large Kerr black hole

2009/08/31 by Simon Comeau, Eric Poisson · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #gr-qc

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.80.087501

published as Phys.Rev.D80:087501,2009 · 4 pages, 2 figures

arxiv created 2009/08/31 · openalex publication_date 2009/10/15 · arxiv updated 2010/04/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The rates at which the mass and angular momentum of a small black hole change as a result of a tidal interaction with a much larger black hole are calculated to leading order in the small mass ratio. The small black hole is either rotating or nonrotating, and it moves on a circular orbit in the equatorial plane of the large Kerr black hole. The orbits are fully relativistic, and the rates are computed to all orders in the orbital velocity V\ensuremath≤V_isco, which is limited only by the size of the innermost stable circular orbit. We show that as V\ensuremath→V_isco, the rates take on a limiting value that depends only on V_isco and not on the spin parameter of the large black hole.

Cited by

• Influence of internal structure on the motion of test bodies in extreme mass ratio situations
• Tidal heating and torquing of a Kerr black hole to next-to-leading order in the tidal coupling