Black hole merger properties in AGN disks match observed distributions when gas accretion and hierarchical mergers are included, varying strongly with disk parameters.
Electromagnetic Flares from Compact-Object Mergers in AGN Disks: Signatures and Predictions
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abstract
Accretion disks in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising sites for mergers of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) detectable via gravitational waves (GWs). These environments facilitate both in-situ formation and dynamical capture of compact objects, and their subsequent mergers. The uncertain origin of GW events detected by LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA motivates searching for accompanying electromagnetic (EM) signatures. Here we investigate post-merger EM flares associated with jets launched from merger remnants, as well as from the shocked ambient gas as the jet breaks out of the disk. We find that jet breakout produces luminous gamma-ray emission, detectable with MeV-band telescopes. Cooling emission from a shocked circum-BH minidisk, winds and background AGN-disk peaks in the UV and optical, with durations ranging from about an hour to a month, and can be identified through year-long monitoring of $\sim10^3$ AGNs with luminosities ranging from $\sim 10^{44}$ to $\sim 10^{45}~{\rm erg~s^{-1}}$. With a single set of parameters, this post-merger jet model produces gamma-ray, hard X-ray and optical flares similar to those claimed to be associated with GW events. Furthermore, by incorporating a transition from a high- to low-angular-momentum accretion state after the merger, the model avoids excessive BH growth, alleviating tensions with hyper-Eddington accretion scenarios.
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Modeling accretion disk interactions with EMRIs allows reliable environment identification and boosts dark-siren Hubble constant precision by as much as 20% for individual events.
Extended-data Bayesian reanalysis of GW190814 finds no evidence for tertiary-induced line-of-sight acceleration or residual eccentricity due to strong degeneracy between the two effects.
citing papers explorer
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Properties of black hole mergers in disks of active galactic nuclei
Black hole merger properties in AGN disks match observed distributions when gas accretion and hierarchical mergers are included, varying strongly with disk parameters.
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Probing Active Galactic Nuclei and Measuring the Hubble constant with Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals
Modeling accretion disk interactions with EMRIs allows reliable environment identification and boosts dark-siren Hubble constant precision by as much as 20% for individual events.
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On the Presence of a Tertiary Compact Object in GW190814
Extended-data Bayesian reanalysis of GW190814 finds no evidence for tertiary-induced line-of-sight acceleration or residual eccentricity due to strong degeneracy between the two effects.
- Observational Properties of Nonthermal Emission from Relativistic Jets Escaping Active Galactic Nucleus Disks