Black hole mergers: the first light

2009/10/01 by Elena M. Rossi, Giuseppe Lodato, G. Lodato +4 · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Coalescence (physics) #Dissipation #Galaxy #Gravitational wave #Kinetic energy #Mechanics and Biomechanics Studies #Nuclear physics #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Recoil #Schwarzschild radius #Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics #Stellar black hole #Supermassive black hole #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15802.x

16 pages, accepted by MNRAS. Animations of the simulations are available at http://jilawww.colorado.edu/~pja/recoil.html

arxiv created 2009/10/01 · openalex publication_date 2009/11/20 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

The coalescence of supermassive black hole binaries occurs via the emission of gravitational waves, that can impart a substantial recoil to the merged black hole. We consider the energy dissipation that results if the recoiling black hole is surrounded by a thin circumbinary disc. Our results differ significantly from those of previous investigations. We show analytically that the dominant source of energy is often potential energy, released as gas in the outer disc attempts to circularize at smaller radii. Thus, dimensional estimates, that include only the kinetic energy gained by the disc gas, underestimate the real energy loss. This underestimate can exceed an order of magnitude, if the recoil is directed close to the disc plane. We use three dimensional smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations and two-dimensional finite difference simulations to verify our analytic estimates. We also compute the bolometric light curve, which is found to vary strongly depending upon the kick angle. A prompt emission signature due to this mechanism may be observable for low-mass (106 M<inf>⊙</inf>) black holes whose recoil velocities exceed ∼103 km s−1. Emission at earlier times can mainly result from the response of the disc to the loss of mass, as the black holes merge. We derive analytically the condition for this to happen.

Citations

• Large Merger Recoils and Spin Flips From Generic Black-Hole Binaries
• REACTION OF ACCRETION DISKS TO ABRUPT MASS LOSS DURING BINARY BLACK HOLE MERGER
• On an excitation mechanism for trapped inertial waves in discs around black holes
• Black hole mergers: can gas discs solve the ‘final parsec’ problem?
• Supermassive black hole binaries in gaseous and stellar circumnuclear discs: orbital dynamics and gas accretion
• Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks
• Alignment of the Spins of Supermassive Black Holes Prior to Coalescence
• Prompt Shocks in the Gas Disk around a Recoiling Supermassive Black Hole Binary
• Smoothed particle hydrodynamics: theory and application to non-spherical stars
• Fossil gas and the electromagnetic precursor of supermassive binary black hole mergers
• Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Cited by

• A physical model of mass ejection in failed supernovae
• ACCRETION DISKS AROUND KICKED BLACK HOLES: POST-KICK DYNAMICS
• Black holes, gravitational waves and fundamental physics: a roadmap