Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-02-15
Phys.Rev.D84:044024,2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
28 pages, 16 figures. Version 2 is significantly revised to reflect new insights into J and Q effects, to be published later
Scientific paper
10.1103/PhysRevD.84.044024
Inspiral of compact stellar remnants into massive black holes (MBHs) is accompanied by the emission of gravitational waves at frequencies that are potentially detectable by space-based interferometers. Event rates computed from statistical (Fokker-Planck, Monte-Carlo) approaches span a wide range due to uncertaintities about the rate coefficients. Here we present results from direct integration of the post-Newtonian N-body equations of motion descrbing dense clusters of compact stars around Schwarzschild MBHs. These simulations embody an essentially exact (at the post-Newtonian level) treatment of the interplay between stellar dynamical relaxation, relativistic precession, and gravitational-wave energy loss. The rate of capture of stars by the MBH is found to be greatly reduced by relativistic precession, which limits the ability of torques from the stellar potential to change orbital angular momenta. Penetration of this "Schwarzschild barrier" does occasionally occur, resulting in capture of stars onto orbits that gradually inspiral due to gravitational wave emission; we discuss two mechanisms for barrier penetration and find evidence for both in the simulations. We derive an approximate formula for the capture rate, which predicts that captures would be strongly disfavored from orbits with semi-major axes below a certain value; this prediction, as well as the predicted rate, are verified in the N-body integrations. We discuss the implications of our results for the detection of extreme-mass-ratio inspirals from galactic nuclei with a range of physical properties.
Alexander Tal
Merritt David
Mikkola Seppo
Will Clifford
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