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Rapid Formation of Supermassive Black Hole Binaries in Galaxy Mergers with Gas

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arxiv 0706.1562 v1 pith:6SPA53B5 submitted 2007-06-11 astro-ph

classification astro-ph
keywords binaryblackgalaxiesgalaxymergerdiskfollowingform
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Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) are a ubiquitous component of the nuclei of galaxies. It is normally assumed that, following the merger of two massive galaxies, a SMBH binary will form, shrink due to stellar or gas dynamical processes and ultimately coalesce by emitting a burst of gravitational waves. However, so far it has not been possible to show how two SMBHs bind during a galaxy merger with gas due to the difficulty of modeling a wide range of spatial scales. Here we report hydrodynamical simulations that track the formation of a SMBH binary down to scales of a few light years following the collision between two spiral galaxies. A massive, turbulent nuclear gaseous disk arises as a result of the galaxy merger. The black holes form an eccentric binary in the disk in less than a million years as a result of the gravitational drag from the gas rather than from the stars.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. Full citation record

  1. Cosmic Pairs: A DESI Census of Dual and Offset AGN as Precursors to Massive Black Hole Binaries

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    DESI DR1 spectroscopy yields >7,000 candidate dual-AGN pairs, expanding the known kpc-scale census by ~4x and linking host-galaxy demographics to LISA-detectable massive black hole mergers.

  2. $\textit{BMAD}$-Circumbinary Magnetically Arrested Disks around Stellar or Black Hole Binaries: Hot Accretion Flows, Disk Properties, and Angular Momentum Transfer

    astro-ph.HE 2025-08 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Circumbinary accretion disks can enter a magnetically arrested state, and in weakly cooled or adiabatic regimes the resulting magnetic flux eruptions may drive the binary orbit to shrink.

  3. Supermassive Binaries in Ultralight Dark Matter Solitons

    astro-ph.CO 2025-04 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    High-resolution simulations show that a symmetric SMBH binary decays faster in a ULDM soliton than semi-analytic estimates predict, due to soliton pinching, with implications for the final parsec problem and PTA gravi...

  4. One Merge to Rule Them All: From Galaxy Interactions to Black Hole Mergers Using Horizon-AGN

    astro-ph.GA 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0 of 10

    Horizon-AGN shows galaxy and black hole merger rates both rise with stellar mass and fall with redshift, peaking near z=2-3, establishing a direct evolutionary link from galaxy interactions to black hole coalescences.

  5. Environmental effects vs. modified gravity in the LISA massive black hole binary population

    gr-qc 2026-07 unverdicted novelty 4.0 of 10

    Population-level hierarchical analysis shows environmental effects from circumbinary disks are unlikely to bias LISA tests of general relativity for massive black hole binaries in realistic scenarios.

  6. Dual AGN and Multiple SMBH Systems in the Era of SKAO

    astro-ph.HE 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 2.0 of 10

    A review outlining radio methods for dual AGN and SMBHB detection and the role of SKAO in enabling comprehensive studies across cosmic time.

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