Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 878, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab20ca
Keywords
accretion, accretion disks; black hole physics; Galaxy: nucleus
Categories
Funding
- Helen Gurley Brown Revocable Trust
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program at the American Museum of Natural History [DGE-1656466]
- Kalbfleisch Fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History
- NSF [PHY11-25915, AST18-15461, AST110395]
- NSF PAARE [AST11-53335]
- PSC-CUNY [60303-00 48]
- Space Telescope Science Institute [HST-AR-14572]
- NASA Astrophysical Theory Grant [NNX14AP27G]
- NASA Exoplanet Research Program [16-XRP16.2-0065]
- NASA [675329, NNX14AP27G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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The merger rate of stellar-mass black hole binaries (sBHBs) inferred by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) suggests the need for an efficient source of sBHB formation. Active galactic nucleus (AGN) disks are a promising location for the formation of these sBHBs, as well as binaries of other compact objects, because of powerful torques exerted by the gas disk. These gas torques cause orbiting compact objects to migrate toward regions in the disk where inward and outward torques cancel, known as migration traps. We simulate the migration of stellar mass black holes in an example of a model AGN disk, using an augmented N-body code that includes analytic approximations to migration torques, stochastic gravitational forces exerted by turbulent density fluctuations in the disk, and inclination and eccentricity dampening produced by passages through the gas disk, in addition to the standard gravitational forces between objects. We find that sBHBs form rapidly in our model disk as stellar-mass black holes migrate toward the migration trap. These sBHBs are likely to subsequently merge on short timescales. The process continues, leading to the build-up of a population of over-massive stellar-mass black holes. The formation of sBHBs in AGN disks could contribute significantly to the sBHB merger rate inferred by LIGO.
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