Calibrating the binary black hole population in nuclear star clusters through tidal disruption events

2020/06/30 by Giacomo Fragione, Rosalba Perna, Abraham Loeb · 14 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary number #Black hole (networking) #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Gravitational wave #LIGO #Light curve #Neutron star #Orbital period #Physics #Population #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Star cluster #Stars #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.HE

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3493

published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 500(4), 4307-4318 (Oxford University Press) · 13 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted by MNRAS

openalex created_date 2020/07/02 · arxiv created 2020/11/05 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/09 · arxiv updated 2020/11/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the sensitivity of gravitational wave (GW) instruments improves and new networks start operating, hundreds of merging stellar-mass black holes (SBHs) and intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) are expected to be observed in the next few years. The origin and distribution of SBH and IMBH binaries in various dynamical environments is a fundamental scientific question in GW astronomy. In this paper, we discuss ways tidal disruption events (TDEs) may provide a unique electromagnetic window into the assembly and merger of binary SBHs and IMBHs in nuclear star clusters (NSCs). We discuss how the host NSC mass and density and the slope of the BH mass function set the orbital properties and the masses of the binaries that undergo a TDE. For typical NSC properties, we predict a TDE rate of ∼10−6–10−7 yr−1 per galaxy. The light curve of TDEs in NSCs could be interrupted and modulated by the companion BH on the orbital period of the binary. These should be readily detectable by optical transient surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility and LSST.

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