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arxiv: 1906.09281 · v3 · pith:UUNDV4KH · submitted 2019-06-21 · astro-ph.HE

Hierarchical Black Hole Mergers in Active Galactic Nuclei

Yang Yang , Imre Bartos , V. Gayathri , Saavik Ford , Zoltan Haiman , Sergey Klimenko , Bence Kocsis , Szabolcs M\'arka
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Zsuzsa M\'arka Barry McKernan Richard O'Shaugnessy
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classification astro-ph.HE
keywords blackmergershierarchicalholeholesligowillactive
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The origins of the stellar-mass black hole mergers discovered by LIGO/Virgo are still unknown. Here we show that, if migration traps develop in the \add{accretion} disks of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and promote the mergers of their captive black holes, the majority of black holes within disks will undergo hierarchical mergers---with one of the black holes being the remnant of a previous merger. 40% of AGN-assisted mergers detected by LIGO/Virgo will include a black hole with mass $\gtrsim 50$ M$_\odot$, the mass limit from stellar core collapse. Hierarchical mergers at traps in AGNs will exhibit black hole spins (anti-)aligned with the binary's orbital axis, a distinct property from other hierarchical channels. Our results are suggestive, although not definitive (with Odds ratio of $\sim 1$), that LIGO's heaviest merger so far, GW170729, could have originated from this channel.

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