Massive black hole binaries are naturally predicted in the context of the hierarchical model of structure formation. The binaries that manage to lose most of their angular momentum can coalesce to form a single remnant. In the last stages of this process, the holes undergo an extremely loud phase of gravitational wave emission, possibly detectable by current and future probes. The theoretical effort towards obtaining a coherent physical picture of the binary path down to coalescence is still underway. In this paper, for the first time, we take advantage of observational studies of active galactic nuclei evolution to constrain the efficiency of gasdriven binary decay. Under conservative assumptions we find that gas accretion towards the nuclear black holes can efficiently lead binaries of any mass forming at high redshift (≥2) to coalescence within the current time. The observed 'downsizing' trend of the accreting black hole luminosity function further implies that the gas inflow is sufficient to drive light black holes down to coalescence, even if they bind in binaries at lower redshifts, down to z ≈ 0.5 for binaries of ∼10<sup>7</sup>M{bull's eye}, and z ≈ 0.2 for binaries of ∼10<sup>6</sup>M{bull's eye}. This has strong implications for the detection rates of coalescing black hole binaries of future space-based gravitational wave experiments.

Dotti, M., Merloni, A., Montuori, C. (2015). Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 448(4), 3603-3607 [10.1093/mnras/stv291].

Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function

DOTTI, MASSIMO
Primo
;
2015

Abstract

Massive black hole binaries are naturally predicted in the context of the hierarchical model of structure formation. The binaries that manage to lose most of their angular momentum can coalesce to form a single remnant. In the last stages of this process, the holes undergo an extremely loud phase of gravitational wave emission, possibly detectable by current and future probes. The theoretical effort towards obtaining a coherent physical picture of the binary path down to coalescence is still underway. In this paper, for the first time, we take advantage of observational studies of active galactic nuclei evolution to constrain the efficiency of gasdriven binary decay. Under conservative assumptions we find that gas accretion towards the nuclear black holes can efficiently lead binaries of any mass forming at high redshift (≥2) to coalescence within the current time. The observed 'downsizing' trend of the accreting black hole luminosity function further implies that the gas inflow is sufficient to drive light black holes down to coalescence, even if they bind in binaries at lower redshifts, down to z ≈ 0.5 for binaries of ∼107M{bull's eye}, and z ≈ 0.2 for binaries of ∼106M{bull's eye}. This has strong implications for the detection rates of coalescing black hole binaries of future space-based gravitational wave experiments.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
Black hole physics; Galaxies: active; Galaxies: interactions; Galaxies: nuclei; Gravitational waves; Space and Planetary Science; Astronomy and Astrophysics
English
2015
448
4
3603
3607
none
Dotti, M., Merloni, A., Montuori, C. (2015). Linking the fate of massive black hole binaries to the active galactic nuclei luminosity function. MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, 448(4), 3603-3607 [10.1093/mnras/stv291].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/129738
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