Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures

Details Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures

2009-12-01

arxiv.org/abs/0912.0087v2

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

19 pages, 15 figures, version accepted for publication

Scientific paper

Coincident detections of electromagnetic (EM) and gravitational wave (GW) signatures from coalescence events of supermassive black holes are the next observational grand challenge. Such detections will provide the means to study cosmological evolution and accretion processes associated with these gargantuan compact objects. More generally, the observations will enable testing general relativity in the strong, nonlinear regime and will provide independent cosmological measurements to high precision. Understanding the conditions under which coincidences of EM and GW signatures arise during supermassive black hole mergers is therefore of paramount importance. As an essential step towards this goal, we present results from the first fully general relativistic, hydrodynamical study of the late inspiral and merger of equal-mass, spinning supermassive black hole binaries in a gas cloud. We find that variable EM signatures correlated with GWs can arise in merging systems as a consequence of shocks and accretion combined with the effect of relativistic beaming. The most striking EM variability is observed for systems where spins are aligned with the orbital axis and where orbiting black holes form a stable set of density wakes, but all systems exhibit some characteristic signatures that can be utilized in searches for EM counterparts. In the case of the most massive binaries observable by the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, calculated luminosities imply that they may be identified by EM searches to z = 1, while lower mass systems and binaries immersed in low density ambient gas can only be detected in the local universe.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Relativistic Mergers of Supermassive Black Holes and their Electromagnetic Signatures will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-507859